2013~2016 Suspension Clunk (Driver Front) after replacing suspension components

That IS surprising. I wouldn't've thought a loose locknut would allow noise. Hmmm.
It is very surprising to me as well. I spent a lot of time combing through YouTube and various other forums/sources to determine what else that I could've missed for anything that has any movement at all in the suspension and 90% of the time, it was something to do with either one of the below:
  1. Sway bar end links: Bushings broken/not fully tightened.
  2. Sway bar bushings: Worn out and causing the sway bar to contact the frame.
  3. Front struts: Most of the videos/forums mentioned the shock absorber being broken, upper mounts were going bad or the center top nut not being fully tightened. I even found a thread where a guy mentioned he spent $2-5k at a mechanic to have the front struts replaced 3 times and still heard the noise lol.....
  4. Control arm bushings: This caused the side to side movement as the bushings were town and no longer dampening the sound.
  5. Suspension preloading: I stumbled upon very few of these being mentioned and I am not sure if we actually need to do that for the CX-5 as I did not see this being indicated for a lot of the components when going through the service manual unless I missed it but for most of the comments, they did indicate premature wear of the bushings if the components with bushings were not fully tightened/torqued at ride-height. I'm still wondering if I should go back and tighten everything at right-height at the moment....
  6. Defective aftermarket parts: Saw something about this in the Toyota Tacoma forums where there was a defect with one of the struts or control arms I believe but it wasn't as common as #1 - 4.
 
It is very surprising to me as well. I spent a lot of time combing through YouTube and various other forums/sources to determine what else that I could've missed for anything that has any movement at all in the suspension and 90% of the time, it was something to do with either one of the below:
  1. Sway bar end links: Bushings broken/not fully tightened.
  2. Sway bar bushings: Worn out and causing the sway bar to contact the frame.
  3. Front struts: Most of the videos/forums mentioned the shock absorber being broken, upper mounts were going bad or the center top nut not being fully tightened. I even found a thread where a guy mentioned he spent $2-5k at a mechanic to have the front struts replaced 3 times and still heard the noise lol.....
  4. Control arm bushings: This caused the side to side movement as the bushings were town and no longer dampening the sound.
  5. Suspension preloading: I stumbled upon very few of these being mentioned and I am not sure if we actually need to do that for the CX-5 as I did not see this being indicated for a lot of the components when going through the service manual unless I missed it but for most of the comments, they did indicate premature wear of the bushings if the components with bushings were not fully tightened/torqued at ride-height. I'm still wondering if I should go back and tighten everything at right-height at the moment....
  6. Defective aftermarket parts: Saw something about this in the Toyota Tacoma forums where there was a defect with one of the struts or control arms I believe but it wasn't as common as #1 - 4.
Success at last!
This is a reminder that when dealing with very small clearances, large mechanical forces closing that gap quickly results in audible shock. Consider the sound of an engine knock when the few extra thousandths gap in a worn bearing is closed by a rapidly moving piston.
Aren't the control arms the only thing you should go back and tighten at ride height? You haven't done the stabilizer bar bushings yet.
 
Success at last!
This is a reminder that when dealing with very small clearances, large mechanical forces closing that gap quickly results in audible shock. Consider the sound of an engine knock when the few extra thousandths gap in a worn bearing is closed by a rapidly moving piston.
Aren't the control arms the only thing you should go back and tighten at ride height? You haven't done the stabilizer bar bushings yet.
:D Good point, will be something I will remember going forward when doing work on my car. I am not sure but I feel as if everyone has a different opinion on bushings and tightening them down at ride-height. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have thought about the ride-height issue until you mentioned it in the other thread. On other forums that I've read, they mentioned that anything with a bushing component should be tightened at ride-height. For example:

https://www.corral.net/threads/tighten-suspension-parts-at-ride-height-or-up-in-the-air.702507/

Anything attaching a bushing. Otherwise, the bushings wind up too much.

https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=715751

+1

If you alter the static ride height of the car via coilover/springs/dampers, you need to reset the nominal position for every single compliance bushing, including the alignment eccentrics.

Like others, I do the jackstand and jack method. And definitely loosen the sway bar endlinks first.

Pro tip: Use a six-point socket under the balljoint nut in the front to avoid fouling the stud. Jack on the socket until the car lifts off the one jack stand.

The rear is a complete PITA, as there are a ton of links, a couple of which are really hard to get a socket on to re-torque to spec.

You'll know you have loosened each one enough when you hear a satisfying "snap" as the internal bushing sleeve re-clocks itself.

Failure to do this will likely result in premature bushing failure, as the rubber will be in a constant state of twist.

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthr...must-be-loaded-before-tightening-control-arms

With the factory style of rubber bushings, if the bolts are not tightened with the suspension at normal ride height, the rubber bushings will eventually tear themselves up, due to having more travel than they were designed for. As mentioned, with spherical rod ends (Heims), or MOST polyurethane bushings, it`s not an issue, but with rubber, absolutely.
 
I have the exact same noise coming from my 2016 Mazda CX-5 2.5L AWD Touring. It has been getting worse and started with the driver side as well. I was about to buy sway bar end links to try and see if that fixes the issue. Might still replace those since they are locked up with rust and the rubber pads/bushings are completely dried out. Have you noticed anything with the other rubber bushings being a bit dry? Did you have any zerk fittings on them?

I'll try checking the locknuts and tighten them if they are loose and let you know if that fixes the issue for me.
 
I have the exact same noise coming from my 2016 Mazda CX-5 2.5L AWD Touring. It has been getting worse and started with the driver side as well. I was about to buy sway bar end links to try and see if that fixes the issue. Might still replace those since they are locked up with rust and the rubber pads/bushings are completely dried out. Have you noticed anything with the other rubber bushings being a bit dry? Did you have any zerk fittings on them?

I'll try checking the locknuts and tighten them if they are loose and let you know if that fixes the issue for me.
If tightening the lug nuts do not resolve your issue, I would probably get a pry bar from Harbor Freight/Home Depot and see if you can pry up on some of the suspension components (e.g. control arms/sway bar end links/tie rod end links) to trace where the noise comes from. It's probably the cheapest option ($10-20) apart from jacking up the vehicle and trying to rock the tire side to side or up and down to locate the noise.

I went with OEM style for all my suspension components aside from the front struts. For the front struts, I went with the KYB sets from RockAuto since I didn't want to deal with compressing the springs. OEM rubber bushings don't tend to have zerk fittings on them based on what I've seen so far; most of the bushings with zerk fittings are typically aftermarket, especially for the CX-5.

The control arm bushings were the only ones that I've seen cracks develop. When I brought the vehicle to my mechanic a few days ago he did comment and say that he noticed some cracks on the transmission bushings but that's it.
 
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