Help identifying suspension clunk?

[Racer Boy]

Originally Posted by dav9515

i have a very similar noise but coming from the front and i can feel it in the steering wheel like someone is lightly tapping with a small hammer....thoughts on what it could be? i initially leaned towards strut mounts but they look good with no visible play and the fact that i "feel" the tapping through the wheel makes me think it is something else.

Appreciate the help and don't mean to jack your thread!

I just recently had the same symptoms on my car. Since I rebuilt the suspension just a few thousand years ago, I was concerned about some component failing so soon. It turned out to be the a loose nut on the driver's front sway bar links, where the bolt goes through the wheel bearing carrier. I cranked the nut down, and the noise is gone.

Guess the mechanic that did the work was an idiot. Oh wait, that would be me...

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by Racer Boy

Guess the mechanic that did the work was an idiot. Oh wait, that would be me...

+ 1 ... the good part is that nobody can complain

I guess that the top of my 'famous wrong moves' goes to for not ensuring that the plunger of the slave cylinder was properly seated.. and as soon as I pushed the clutch pedal I heard a clunk noise with the pedal sinking to the floor, getting my brand new Sachs clutch disk completely drenched with hydraulic fluid, needles to say the gearbox came out again..

[dav9515]

i am going to put the car up on jackstands to do the sway bar swap and check everything there. i had the noise before i changed the end links and thought those were the issue, turns out it wasnt. I rechecked all the bolts after the noise continued so i am mostly confident they are tight. will give everything a good shaking to see if i can see what may be loose/noisy. I hate just throwing parts at it but its a 97 on original struts and suspension parts so it could be anything really. car only has 53k miles but age is just as detrimental on rubber as mileage.

Originally Posted by Racer Boy

I just recently had the same symptoms on my car. Since I rebuilt the suspension just a few thousand years ago, I was concerned about some component failing so soon. It turned out to be the a loose nut on the driver's front sway bar links, where the bolt goes through the wheel bearing carrier. I cranked the nut down, and the noise is gone.

Guess the mechanic that did the work was an idiot. Oh wait, that would be me...

[99Roadster]

Originally Posted by dav9515

I hate just throwing parts at it but its a 97 on original struts and suspension parts so it could be anything really. car only has 53k miles but age is just as detrimental on rubber as mileage.

Yeah Dav on my 99 W/47,000 on it I was looking at the suspension and everything looked good except for the sway bar drop links.

The fronts were totally shot and the backs were half as bad as the fronts...So since the stock links were TRW and they were gone at 47,000 they were probably going bad after 20 or 30,000 so I decided to give another maker a shot and went with Lemfoerder links and they sure look like a great made part so we shall see.

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by 99Roadster

Yeah Dav on my 99 W/47,000 on it I was looking at the suspension and everything looked good except for the sway bar drop links.

The fronts were totally shot and the backs were half as bad as the fronts...So since the stock links were TRW and they were gone at 47,000 they were probably going bad after 20 or 30,000 so I decided to give another maker a shot and went with Lemfoerder links and they sure look like a great made part so we shall see.

TRW makes pretty god quality OEM parts, and Lemfolder has good reputation in Germany..
.