Front-end clunking sound when going over bumps

[Photonic]

Thanks for the DYI post guys. Just put a pair of chop stix on mine and the noise is gone. Still have a vibration when braking at higher speeds in the steering wheel, on in the brake pedals. Noticed when doing the sway bar links that the wheel can be moved back and forth a bit while on jacks. Sound like symptoms of bad control arms and or bushings?

[sarunas4]

i get a low clunking noise coming from the passenger front wheel.. ONLY when i go over very small bumps/uneven road... (no clunking over larger bumps, or when turning, or when breaking)
yall think its also the sway bar links? is there a way to test it? (visible damage? feel them? pull them?) just wanna be sure thats what it is before i replace them.
thanks!!

[Photonic]

It's hard to test for movement in the link while the beast is up on jacks as you need a load or weight baring down on the suspension. There's a 98% chance that the sway bar links are the culprit. Given that probability with the cost (40-70 bucks for the pair), and the great DYI write-up, I'd just replace them. Worst case scenario, you'd have new links (which would have eventually failed given the written track record). My 2 cents (which cost the government about 10 cents to manufacture).

[sarunas4]

Originally Posted by Photonic

It's hard to test for movement in the link while the beast is up on jacks as you need a load or weight baring down on the suspension. There's a 98% chance that the sway bar links are the culprit. Given that probability with the cost (40-70 bucks for the pair), and the great DYI write-up, I'd just replace them. Worst case scenario, you'd have new links (which would have eventually failed given the written track record). My 2 cents (which cost the government about 10 cents to manufacture).

so i squezed myself under the beast while its on the ground and tugged on the links, left one was tight, right one moved up and down slightly... success! unfortunatelly i also discovered that my left front outer cv boot is torn! looks pretty recent.. so hopefully there is no inside damage, im no mechanic but ill try to replace it with the DIY.. any tips for the process? any advice is appreciated.
thanks

[msammy]

Originally Posted by sarunas4

so i squezed myself under the beast while its on the ground and tugged on the links, left one was tight, right one moved up and down slightly... success! unfortunatelly i also discovered that my left front outer cv boot is torn! looks pretty recent.. so hopefully there is no inside damage, im no mechanic but ill try to replace it with the DIY.. any tips for the process? any advice is appreciated.
thanks

I'd replace both sway bar links while you're there since the other one will fail sooner or later. As far as the left outer CV boot is concerned, as long as you do not have the dreaded click-click-click or scrape-scrape-scrape sound, then you most likely have found the boot torn before your CV joint was damaged by sand/water, etc contaminants. If that's the case, then use the DIY for the boot replacement, otherwise, replace the whole half-shaft as I did in the past with my local indy. Good luck, let us know how you make out!

[omodos]

Originally Posted by sarunas4

so i squezed myself under the beast while its on the ground and tugged on the links, left one was tight, right one moved up and down slightly... success! unfortunatelly i also discovered that my left front outer cv boot is torn! looks pretty recent.. so hopefully there is no inside damage, im no mechanic but ill try to replace it with the DIY.. any tips for the process? any advice is appreciated.
thanks

sarunas4 and photonic were you getting the clunking noise mostly on rough road surfaces?, cobbled roads?I get it too not on speed humps or cornering or highway, just bad quality road surfaces......hmmm I am to guess that these rods must be load bearing in some way?can they catastrophically fail and get me in trouble as I have not yet attended to issue?or do they just affect handling becuase of the role they play with the stabilizer(uk english I guess) -sway bar(u.s)?thanks

[sarunas4]

Originally Posted by omodos

sarunas4 and photonic were you getting the clunking noise mostly on rough road surfaces?, cobbled roads?I get it too not on speed humps or cornering or highway, just bad quality road surfaces......hmmm I am to guess that these rods must be load bearing in some way?can they catastrophically fail and get me in trouble as I have not yet attended to issue?or do they just affect handling becuase of the role they play with the stabilizer(uk english I guess) -sway bar(u.s)?thanks

Hey, Mostly i got the noise from just driving on slightly rough roads.. hitting very smalls bumps, small, shallow pot holes. I cannot answer your question about them failing because I am not a mechanic. From what i understand its just the rubber wearing out around inside the holes, so with time they will probably just wear out and make even more noise, but i dont think they will fail since theyre surrounded by steel.
Anyways, theyre not that expensive and since diagnosed it and changed it myself (and im not a mechanic like i said) the whole process was cheap. It's not hard. You dont have to to lift the car or anything just take the wheel off...