I appreciate all the advice! I haven't had a good chance to check anything further yet but I will. I had it on the lift just a coupl weeks ago when I changed the oil and rotated my tires (no change before/after tire swap), and everything visually looks ok, meaning all the parts I've previously replaced. I did torque everything at K0 (on the ground weight of car). But I did remove the sway bar when I did the engine mounts a while back and I torqued those bolts in the air. I can't see how that would change things to be honest since the bar just rotates in the bushing. I put new links on in the air too if I recall. But I'll take a closer look.

I will grease the guide pins, I haven't done that. But no noticeable brake drag or pull to one side, ever. Just a dab of regular grease?

I still have that top mount in the back of my mind. It pops randomly backing out of a parking space, going over a speed bump, etc. I hate to pull the strut just for the mount but maybe I'll just do it. On one hand it's hard to see how it would cause this problem, but on the other, it can affect camber and caster if worn that bad I guess.

No grease on the brake caliper guide pins - they are supposed to be dry, in clean rubber boots. If the boots or pins are damaged, they are easy and cheap to replace.

https://i.ibb.co/42ggxXb/brake.jpg

where is the reasoning behind dry caliper guides? ive been curious for a long time :dunno:

The lube enables them to pick up dust and debris and make everything worse off after some period of time.

Alright.. I kind of feel like an idiot here. Truth is, I'm not 100% sure how it happened and how it went this long. And how I didn't notice it when I had it on the lift a few weeks ago changing the oil and rotating the tires. But the left front lower control arm bolt was loose at the subframe. :yikes:

I'm not sure if it loosened up over the last ~25k miles or if I just never final torqued it.. regardless it was about a turn loose!

https://youtu.be/8CZ0zHq4Y64?si=4YOIz9Ea9UhJK_Do

Embarrassing as it is to give this feedback, hope it helps someone else in the future. Maybe that fixes the random clank I hear that I thought was the strut top mount.

Tightened with the weight on the wheel? I'm happy to hear it was a relatively simple fix.

Yes always! (Except for maybe this one) 🤣
But I did torque it with the weight on the ground a few mins ago.

Easily done. After I replaced the engine mounts on mine I had really heavy clunk several weeks later when cornering. I hadn't tightened the subframe bolts..