Hey guys, hoping i can get some help here, so i had the infamous problem of control arms being bad on my car, so 2 weeks ago i dropped the ponies on a new control arm kit with new tie rods and sway bar links and installed it last week, 1st let me say i was amazed at how easy the install was, less than 2 hours on the rack at school and 45 minutes on the alignment rack and she was done, so anyhow, im driving the car and it feels absolutely great, shimmy is gone from the wheel and it feels really steady so i decide im gonna take it on a nice long drive down some of the highways here in L.A. so about an hour into my drive i start to hear a clunk noise coming from the front right suspension of which i just all replaced, i took it into school yesterday and threw it up on the rack to check to see if anything had backed out and became loose and all is good with the install and everything was torqued to specs as taken from alldata in which there information came directly out of the bently manual for the car. the car still feels smooth, but makes the clunk noise when steering, if im at complete stop and i steer the wheel back and forth it will make the clunk noise, can anyone help me with what this might be, i dont want to remove the bellows boots to inspect the inner tie rod ends if i dont have to. so some help would be appreciated as where to go with this issue.

 

You have better mechanical skills than I.

If you replaced everything, then either a part is bad or loose. With the car on the rack see if you can move any part of the suspension.

Was you replacement part german made of Chinese copy?

The fact that it makes noise when the car is stopped and you turn the wheel makes me wonder if there is a problem with an inner tie rod.

 

they were umm i think OCAP control arms, not china made but made in italy, i bought the entire kit from blaufergnugen, anyhow, today i think i will throw the car up on the rack and cut the clamps on the bellows boots and take a look at the inner tie rod ends and just secure back with zip ties as do not have clamps to replace them with, something sounds halla loose in there to me, so hopefully i will find it in there and tighten it up, i tried to hunt down a pair of inner tie rod ends local this morning and didnt pan out for me, so hopefully i can just tighten them up and do a quick toe adjust on the alignment rack and be good again.

 

The OCAP parts are not bad. They are about the same quality as the Hamburg Technic ones. Better than Asian brand but not quite Meyle or Lemfoerder.

If you need a set of tie rod ends I can get you a set of Reengineered Meyle All Metal Tie Rod Ends for $72.78 shipped at my store.

Good luck.

 

first thing to check is are the tie rods tight since you had the tracking/alignment done loose ball joint??

 

well as i said per my previous post i checked everything i installed and it was all tight, and i did the alignment myself so i definitly didnt leave the tie rods loose, anyhow i tore into it today and its the inner tie rod ends that are making noise. so i need to find the special socket to pull em off and order new inner rods and bellow boots cuz the outer tie rod ends are new, and then i will have to align it again, oh well will just be a simple front toe adjust this time.

 

Sounds like good bloody times. I am going to be after that 12 piece Meyle kit soon... just have to do some pricing around... I'm in Canada, so it gets tricky.

 

does anyone know the size that the inner tie rod nut is, and where i can get the tool to remove it, we dont have any split sockets at school to fit that, and getting wrench in there is not gonna work.

 

Sorry, my bently's doesn't give a size, just torque. seems from the picture that the nut is integral to the tie rod.

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