Suspension clunking?

[slavrenz]

Hey everyone, I have a 2001 Mazda Protege LX 2.0, and when I go over big bumps with my car, I get a clunking sound from the front. It almost sounds like my struts are bottoming out, but I just replaced them a few months ago with Monroe Sensa-Trac struts, and this sound just started occurring in the last few weeks.

I just replaced my left front control arm yesterday because the ball joint dust boot was broken, and I thought that it was making metal-on-metal contact. this seemed to help some, but the clunking is still there to a large degree.

Any ideas on what could be causing this? I checked the strut bearing when I replaced the struts, and they seemed to be in good condition. Has anyone had any issues with their Monroe struts bottoming out before?

 

[mhrebin]

you should look at the endlinks in the front, usually when endlinks are bad they make noise. i would start there. Check they are tight on the swaybar/strut tab and also the endlinks arent bad. Any play is a sign of bad/loose endlinks

also you might want to give the front swaybar bushings a gander. they might be worn and arent holding the swaybar tight anymore, cause the bar to move around and make noise.

 

[slavrenz]

Thanks for the help. I replaced the endlinks when I replaced the struts, because I ended up having to cut them off of my car. I haven't considered the sway bar bushings yet, so I will take a look at these.

Does anyone know how hard these bushings are to replace?

 

[eszoom]

check your bumper stops or bushings. they sit on top of your shock/struts. gotta look good cause mine are black the same as the dust boot. coulda cracked and fell off.

 

[slavrenz]

I checked those first thing, and they look fine. Mine are yellow, so they're a little bit easier to see . Anyways, I'm just gonna get some new strut mounts and see if that helps - it sounds like I should have replaced those anyway when I did the struts.

 

[00MazPro]

Thanks for starting this thread! I've got a '00 LX and getting a clunking sound when I go over bumps as well. The sound is coming from the front passenger side of my car. I'll be taking a closer inspection this weekend.

 

[slavrenz]

I haven't had a chance to get the new strut mounts yet, but I've been pondering this situation for several days. Thinking back to when I changed the struts, the mounts and bearings didn't look bad, so I won't be surprised if they aren't the issue. I do remember that when I went to tighten the center strut nut that hold everything together, I wasn't able to torque it quite to spec b/c the strut rod started spinning with the nut. I tried using a vice grip with a rag wrapped around the strut, but I still couldn't hold it in place.

Anyways, I will update this once I replace my strut mounts, and if that doesn't fix it, I will have to take it to get looked at