When going over potholes or speed bumps, at almost any speed, I hear a clunk noise from the front driver's side. I thought it was the strut bushings and ended up replacing both (just in case) and it seemed to solve the problem for a little while (about an hour). Noise is back now though. I have noticed that when the car is jacked up on that side, the noise subsides for a while. I had it gone for about a day after being jacked up on one occasion.

I know the noise could be any of a variety of things including:

-control arm bushing
-sway bar end link
-cv joint
-wheel bearing
-subframe bushing


But I'm wondering if anyone has had something similar happen with jacking the car up and the noise being gone...

Any ideas what it could be?

 

Does it do it like when the car goes up in the air over bumps or coming down?
More during hot than cold?
When did it start?

 

I would say it does it going down into the bump when you first hit. I havent noticed a difference with hot or cold. It started... maybe 2 months ago. It got worse about a month ago after going over some speed bumps. I was dropping my sister off at work and when I went over the speed bumps at her job, the noise was the worst I had heard! It started to be a lot more often after that. It does subside for a period of time though when the car is jacked up.

 

Sounds like the strut tower bushing and bearing that is at the very top of the struts. They wear out and will begin clunking and it gets worse over time. When the car is jacked up the bushings get the pressure taken off and can expand and will stop the sound for a little bit but it will return. Hardware kits for those are cheap on ecs tuning and it can be done in a couple hours.

 

Is that something the mechanic should have noticed if he compressed the spring when he replaced the strut bushing?



Thanks for the replies.

 

I have the same problem. I noticed when my car was on jack stands theat the sway bar link was not aligned correctly indicating that it was pullung toward the passenger side. Will adjust and post my results.

 

Had a Subaru WRX that did the same thing. Turned out to be a combination of the Strut being bad plus the Sway Bar Endlink was making contact with another portion of the suspension.