Rear strut mount
 

Now that spring is sort of here I need to get back to my rear strut issue. It makes a really faint clunking noise over bumps. Notice when going slow. I lowered the car last year and I didn't recall the noise before. I've driven probably 1k since I lowered. Car was aligned by a specialist, still drives fine.
I am thinking it could possibly be the rubber seal that goes around the strut mount. I reused the one on it. It was in ok shape. I replaced left side. Or it could be that I did not tighten the nut on top of the strut enough giving it a little play.
So I swore I would never do suspension stuff again but maybe it would be easy to fix these issues before the shop. Regarding the nut, is the metal above the strut mount (that is in the way preventing an Allan wrench) structural? Some had mentioned drilling a hole just big enough to get an Allen wrench through the hole. Put on wrench, put Allen through hole into strut bolt and tightened.
Regarding rubber seal, if I jack the rear end up, loosen sway bar, compress springs, should I be able to have a friend push down on top of the strut giving me space to remove old and put new back on?
Thanks

Creaking most likely comes from the strut top hat, they do that with age. Mine went away when when I put newer parts. I don’t think you can swap the top hat on the rear without taking everything apart and the rear suspension is a b*%#€ to do. There are a couple of ways to do it but (at least for me) both are tedious. Look for a DYI on here and see how much you need to take off before you get to it, I’m pretty sure the strut needs to be out all together.

If it’s really faint I’d just roll with it until you have to get in there for other reasons, I don’t think there is any risk leaving it like that, just the damn noise! I’ve learned to stop chasing squeaks and rattles on a 18 year old car :D

Thanks. I don't want to replace the mount, just the rubber seal (band) that goes around it. My friend thinks I'm nut. I guess I will roll with it for a while. You have to listen for it. It's really faint.
I lowered the car and dread the though of removing the strut again.

I had a rear clunking sound at 78k miles. It mainly occurred while going slow over small bumps/brick paved areas. The issue was worn rear trailing arms. After replacement it immediately went away. It’s a simple DIY and I didn’t realign, but realignment is recommended by some; I haven’t had alignment issues after repair. Fronts exhibited same noise shortly afterwards so I also replaced those with the EPS part. If these haven’t been replaced I’d look there.

I know the rubber seal you’re talking about.. I don’t think that’s the cause of the noise so if you’re going to get in there just for that don’t do it. I’ve seen it completely gone on some cars and it didn’t make a noise. Get a louder exhaust, that’s what I did :D you’ll forget all about that noise.