This may sound dumb, but have you checked to see if the jack is in it's mount tight? Just a thought as it is in the rear right. Another thought, I did a strut replacement using Monroe quick struts once and there was a problem with the strut being correctly assembled to the upper mounts, but it is a pain to remove them and check. If a shop did all this work for you to fix the clunk, and it's still there take it back and make it their problem.

 

It could be the rear strut mount wearing out, or it not being tightened properly against the body.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...6-2007-2011/555946-diy-gen-6-6-5-rear-clunk-fix-strut-assembly-replacement.html

 

I checked the jack but its tight and so is the spare. Nothing else back there to bang around. I replaced the rear shock mounts with the struts. Could it be that the new bearing hub i put in is bad from the box? If i grab the rr wheel and shake it in and out, i can feel and hear that it has some play in it. That was the reason I replaced it to begin with. All bolts involved are tight.

 

Play in and out, play at 12 to 6 or 9 to 3 oclock?

 

12 & 6. Put in another bearing but get the same movement and noise.

 

Well, play at 12 and 6 on the front end would normally point to the ball joint, but since the rear wheels don't steer...

Look at the bushings on the control arms connecting the hub/knuckle to the body. Should be like two lower lateral arms (front and rear) running inboard from the knuckle to the frame between the rear wheels and one sway arm running forward to the frame under the rear seat. There is not much else to look at back there if you've already done the struts, strut mounts and hub bearing.

 

Welcome to TN Hotchymotchy :hi:

I hope you find the culprit soon, it would drive me nuts as well.

 

The movement and noise got better when i pushed on the lower end of the strut while someone rocked the wheel in and out so I cranked down on the lower strut bolts (evev though they were pretty snug) which got rid of the movement but I still have unwanted noises coming from that side that I want to track down. I will post a follow up if/when I do.

 

Check the rear lateral control rods on that side. Lift up the rear of the car and tap them with a good size mallet. See if you can duplicate the clunk. The rear-most one, the one with the adjustment sleeve for the alignment, is the one that usually goes out. If you find your clunk, you will need to replace that rear lateral control rod and have an alignment done.

Mike

 

If you used Monroe quick struts, the clunking wouldn't surprise me, they clunk by nature and they are junk. The upper bearings make noise, sometimes rotating the shaft and then retightening the nut to 34 foot points fixes it for a while. I, REAL unhappy with the ones that I bought.

 

I invoked their satisfaction guarantee and shipped them back for this exact issue. Oddly, sometimes I'd hit big bumps and hear nothing and then I'd hit a pebble and hear a loud clunk.

Unfortunately, all the aftermarket strut components seem to be of greatly inferior quality over OEM. The only one I used was the KYB replacement boot. It's cheap plastic but seems adequate to keep water and dirt from getting all over the piston which could cause the seals to wear prematurely. My 13 year old OEM strut mounts are far superior to brand new Monroe or KYB ones.

 

Thanks for all of your inputs! I finally figured out that the movement and clunking was coming from one of the two brand new Monroe OESpectrum struts that I had just installed in place of the 11 year OEM parts. I ordered a replacement (same make/model), installed it and all is quiet again. What a hassle! Now I have to pay to ship the defective one back to PartsGeek, but I cant really blame them, I knew their policy before ordering and have never gotten any bad parts from them in the past. Besides their prices are way less than buying from Advance Auto or Autozone so Im still ahead. I am dissapointed with Monroe for sure. Their defective strut cost me a lot of wasted time and aggravation and prompted me to replace the stabilizer bar struts And bearing hub unneccessarily. Think i will stick with KYB from now on!

 

As long as you reuse the OEM mount hardware or buy new OEM strut mounts, you should be fine. All aftermarket mounts (including KYB) are junk.