Clunk from rear suspension
 

Whenever I drive down a road that isn't completely smooth I hear a very loud clunking coming from what sounds like the rear suspension. It clunks from 20-40 mph very quickly as I drive, with the regularity that a clicking brake pad would. The noise goes away under braking. The rotors and pads are all new, replaced this summer. The only thing I can think of is a strut or strut mount. Please help. This is driving me nuts.

strut. i just replaced mine today cuse it was doing the same thing.

Was it obviously the rear? I have noticed that it is hard to localize a sound when you are driving the car. Does anyone know if it would be bad to just replace one strut or should I do both rears? Cash is pretty tight right now.

Have someone who is car-savvy sit in the back seat and listen for the noise. I'm not sure if the rear struts have bearings at the top or not, they might just have some sort of bushing to hold it in place. Check those first, that would be cheaper than a whole new strut.

well it sounded more rear seat-ish and i have my rear seats down so it might not be as obvious with them up. but you should still b able to tell its rear and not front.
I reaplaced both my rears at the same time today (well, my dad did actually cause i was in canukland but still). the parts store in town wanted ~120 for a pair of monroes, but i got a pair of gabriels of ebay new for 60 shipped.

only thing that would clunk is a blown out strut or the mount.

Thanks Richie. The struts are GR2's and have almost 80,000 on them with Intrax springs so they are due. I will most likely just go with AGX's all around as soon as I can afford it. Anyone have horror stories about leaving a bad strut in?

bad strut can lead to premature tire wear.

Well I better take care of it then. Neo Gen's are not cheap and I am broke.

I'm thinking:
Loose lug nuts
Loose sway bar links or some other bushing gone bad

It's not the lugnuts for sure. I tried to crawl under the car to check the sway bar. The endlinks are good but I cant get to the main bushings. I did install a speedbuilt swaybar about 30,000 miles ago so those urethane bushings should be fine.

you don't have a small animal / stick / child stuck in any of the moving parts back there do you? everything nice and tight?

Iirc I have not run down any toddlers lately. Too late now anyway. Got a set of AGX's off ebay for $419 shipped. If anyone else is interested I found them through a link on GAGT.com. Saved over $200 off the PFYC price.

The source of my clunking was the rear sway bar links not at the wheel but the next ones at the body/frame. If you were to grab the bar and pull push they were clunking. The guy showed me what I was worried about and said I could could ignore it for the next 5 or 10 yrs or give him 300 bux to change them out. I was told that it was a combination of the sway bar having less tension and the bushings being worn. LOL I saved my 300 bux and put it towards new tires that day. Hope this helps someone else.

its the struts. i just had mine done. replace the whole assembly, its easier

It's weird that it's consistent like that... but this is what I'd do

Jack up the rear, get a friend, get a prybar.

Pull the cap off the strut mount inside the trunk, and then watch as a friend uses the pry bar to lift the wheel up and down slightly.. look for any up/down play in the top of the strut... if there is the mount is worn out, just replace it, nice and simple.

If that isn't it, I'd start pulling/ tugging on things. Like underscore said, tug at the swaybar/look for broken/loose mounts.

Maaaybe a bad hub? Grab the wheel and wiggle it back and forth and up and down, look for play in it.

Check the control arm for worn bushings and such.. that's less likely to make your noise though I think. Still, check it out if the strut mount isn't bad.

Also, aside from having a worn part that's clunking, perhaps the wheel need to be balanced? it could be at like 20-40 that's the right vibration speed to make that part clunk.. I dunno.

The strut clunking will be more common over the bigger bumps, and the sway bar clunking will be pretty much clunking when you drive over a stone, may be more noticable when you first start driving. You could have both problems or more!

Thread is 4 months old guys. I replaced the struts with AGX's. Fixed.

haha owned.

i got a 99 GX can any one tell me where to get new ply-urethane bushings. i want to do all of them when i go to re-do my suspension. i need help with findin the parts thank you