Intermittent clunk

[trolley]

Ive had the top nuts on the shocks looked at twice and still have same problem.

Im gonna try and get my hands on a pair second hand struts to see if they make a difference.

Did you try putting a little grease on the shock to see if this alleviates the problem temporarily? I had the same issue. Turning around in my flat apartment garage would have a knocking sound coming from the front right corner. Mechanic said he saw it 'unstick' when he put it up on the lift. Said I needed new shocks. Bought a tub of grease and some shock clamps, pulled the shock apart and regreased it myself. Fixed the issue.

[shav]

Ive had the top nuts on the shocks looked at twice and still have same problem.

Im gonna try and get my hands on a pair second hand struts to see if they make a difference.

Did you try putting a little grease on the shock to see if this alleviates the problem temporarily? I had the same issue. Turning around in my flat apartment garage would have a knocking sound coming from the front right corner. Mechanic said he saw it 'unstick' when he put it up on the lift. Said I needed new shocks. Bought a tub of grease and some shock clamps, pulled the shock apart and regreased it myself. Fixed the issue.

Do u mean completely pulled the shock apart or just remove the spring from the strut?

[Shaheenis]

He will mean what I have described before. Pull the strut apart. It is actually very easy once the strut is out, no valves to remove or anything it is just simply undoing the nut on the bottom of the strut and pulling it in two. As they are inverted monotube it is basically a strut inside a tube. That is where you refresh the grease, it will be quite obvious. I am still going to do this soon god damit, go with my original hunch.

[trolley]

Ive had the top nuts on the shocks looked at twice and still have same problem.

Im gonna try and get my hands on a pair second hand struts to see if they make a difference.

Did you try putting a little grease on the shock to see if this alleviates the problem temporarily? I had the same issue. Turning around in my flat apartment garage would have a knocking sound coming from the front right corner. Mechanic said he saw it 'unstick' when he put it up on the lift. Said I needed new shocks. Bought a tub of grease and some shock clamps, pulled the shock apart and regreased it myself. Fixed the issue.

Do u mean completely pulled the shock apart or just remove the spring from the strut?

What Shaheenis said. Once you pull the strut out and take the spring off, there's an allen bolt in the bottom of the strut if I remember correctly. I did it with zero experience in suspension and it was a piece of cake. Undoing the allen bolt was a PITA though... Make sure you clean all the old grease out properly like I didn't... You'll need a scraping tool of some variety to get right down the tube. Probably take you a few hours in total if you're a newb like me.

Also when putting this back together keep in mind the 'off center' bolt attaching the bottom of the shock unit to the wheel .... thing (oh lord i'm terrible at this, someone educate me please) which is your camber adjustment. Mark the position of this BEFORE you undo ANY bolts. Don't do what I did and adjust the camber by eye when reassembling. I really gave the wheel alignment guy a surprise as I managed to get it spot on by eye, he was expecting it to be way off when I told him what I did!!

[shav]

Thanks trolley. I'll get my mechanic to sort this out at next service. This could be my saving grace.

[trolley]

Thanks trolley. I'll get my mechanic to sort this out at next service. This could be my saving grace.

While researching this issue I got in touch with Tony at Sydney Shock Absorbers (Bilstein dealer). The advice was:

You could try the regrease option yourself, the chrome pressure tube needs to be unbolted from the base then threaded out of the yellow housing; not too difficult, if you have the ability to remove the struts and springs from them yourself.

If you need any more info just let me know.

[shav]

Thanks trolley. I'll get my mechanic to sort this out at next service. This could be my saving grace.

While researching this issue I got in touch with Tony at Sydney Shock Absorbers (Bilstein dealer). The advice was:

You could try the regrease option yourself, the chrome pressure tube needs to be unbolted from the base then threaded out of the yellow housing; not too difficult, if you have the ability to remove the struts and springs from them yourself.

If you need any more info just let me know.

Appreciate it mate. I dont have the tools, or the time to do it myself though. The car is due a service in a month, so I'll wait and get my mechanic to sort it for me at the same time. But this knowledge is fantastic and I will report back on the outcome.

[Tonic]

Kido tune is great...went for low rev torque to suit the majority use.

As to the knock in the suspension my next move is to get some new control arm bushes, regrease the struts and replace the brake pads. Hoping a bit cheaper while they are all in the same area! After 80,000 km my rotors seem flat and unscored so they can remain.

The regrease struts sounds the way to go for the knock.... Well until that doesn't work....

[Tonic]

Hang on there... Ead this thread.... viewtopic.php?f=45&t=11268
I found the mysterious clunk....

And checked my main strut top nut on the left front and it was finger loose..... Tightened it up so will see how it goes tomorrow. Maybe can put off the suspension work a little longer!......

[Tonic]

Quick test drive and clunk is gone!!!!

[shav]

Nick, that was one of the first tings that was checked with my mechanic and the issue is still there. Im close to being due for my next service so I will follow Tony's advice and get the mechanic to remove the struts for a full regrease. Its gotta be cheaper to do this than new struts.

[Shaheenis]

I am planning to re-grease my front struts soon and for those of you that have not done this before I have found a link to an article that describes the process which saves me writing one .

I really really hope this fixes my annoying clunk, I will be stoked and no doubt so will others if it in fact fixes theirs.

http://wrxinfo.com/how_tos/suspension/r ... struts.htm

I will be using http://www.nulon.com.au/products/Specia ... 3Wt1IGSx8E

[shav]

I am planning to re-grease my front struts soon and for those of you that have not done this before I have found a link to an article that describes the process which saves me writing one .

I really really hope this fixes my annoying clunk, I will be stoked and no doubt so will others if it in fact fixes theirs.

http://wrxinfo.com/how_tos/suspension/r ... struts.htm

Hope it works out for ya.

I have a worn sway bar bush I need to replace. Stupid thing is its only 6months old and its from Whiteline but its not solidly holding the sway bar in position as I can see it slip side to side when I move it by hand. I'll change that first to see what happens before I try the strut option.

[peadya100]

My clunk started regularly appearing around a month or 2 ago. I tried the obvious strut top tightening but mine were already tighter than I could get them. By yesterday my clunking was so bad I was genuinely worried a wheel was going to come off!
So I dropped in to my mechanic on the way to work to book it in and was informed theyd had some cancelations and could look at it that day... that never happens at this place!!
They went over every nut and bolt to check tension and found that the sway bar end link was almost completely undone. This was fixed and as a result the clunk is gone
My mechanic said that these can often come loose on some models, so it might be worth checking out all of you fellow clunk sufferers.

[Shaheenis]

Thanks for the tip. Definately sounds worth checking out.