When to give up when it comes to car repairs

[NightmareMoon]

No clunking noise is norminal, FWIW. That doesnt mean its awful, but it CAN be found and fixed.

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[Metz302]

I wouldnt recommend what I did for thst extended balljoint control arm to others. Concensus says to avoid em due to the failure rates.

Did you put a wrench on the endlink bolt behind the bar or did you just tighten em from one side? Did they fully stop rotating when you tighten them or did you just give it a good twist? Did you put a torque wrench on them? Theres a right way to tighten endlinks and it takes two tools at once. Theres a wrong way and its a big ugga digga power tool.

If you take the endlinks off and its making noise, that would rule endlinsk out, but if you remove them and its quiet(er) it would not entirely implicate them.

either way if you remove them, check for noise, reinstall them and you do the install right, that might fix the noise.

I took one side off today, and tightened it back up bc there was grease all over the boot that looks like it got squeezed out. And I tightened it with a wrench on the backside. I was under the impression that they had to be tightened that way. Bc the joint will just spin if not.

 

[Metz302]

No clunking noise is norminal, FWIW. That doesnt mean its awful, but it CAN be found and fixed.

Right, it’s just a matter of finding exactly what it is.. I am shocked the shop I go to couldn’t find it but they also only had it for an hour probably.

 

[NightmareMoon]

Right, it’s just a matter of finding exactly what it is.. I am shocked the shop I go to couldn’t find it but they also only had it for an hour probably.

Its a tough ask. You cant listen and reproduce it at the same time if you need to drive it to repro it, and just guessing would have you annoyed with them for guessing wrong, which they’re certainly likely to do. I can see a shop not being interested in that work.

 

[Metz302]

Its a tough ask. You cant listen and reproduce it at the same time if you need to drive it to repro it, and just guessing would have you annoyed with them for guessing wrong, which they’re certainly likely to do. I can see a shop not being interested in that work.

Yeah, it usually seems like most of these noises kind of give themselves away. At least in prior experiences I’ve had with stuff like this.

This is the only one that has really tripped me up.

 

[Outlaw]

I'm such a broken record sometimes sry. I'll bet you a dollar it's Swaybar Endlinks. Every shock, spring, configuration I've had on the front of an S550 has eventually started making swaybar end link noise. It's a clunk, really reliable clunk, and also random clunks at times.

I chock it up to a couple things, mainly how hard it is for me to put hella lb-ft on that top nut of the endlink. Second, both at work and at home I have a steep transition that puts my left front up the transition first, and I "almost 2 wheel it" before it levels out...at least 4 times per day (if I don't, I'll scrape the splitter).

Lastly, I've tightened it plenty of times, it'll be completely quiet for a couple weeks and then I'll start clunking again. It's never felt loose when I check it. I've locktite'd them, maybe they held longer idk, but eventually clunked again. But when I had to remove them, I had to cut them off (couldn't get the nut off, dur). Then I replaced them with aftermarket endlinks and I had a good run, but about a month ago, they started clunking again. There's a lot of thread on the links, I'm going to try to double nut it next time I have the wheel off.

Good luck!

Would that clunk be when stopping? I have a clunk that I can feel very well. Happens right before or right as the vehicle comes to a complete stop, not when the brakes are hit but as it comes to a dead stop almost like the wheels and everything shop and the body continues moving it the wheels and body stop and the engine and tranny slam forward. It's not every time but it's common enough and very very obvious the thud goes through the entire car

 

[sk47]

Hello; My car is now 25 years old. About 3-4 years ago i found a low-speed rattle which had bothered me for years. I checked under the car and tried most everything. Even pulled the steering rack once to no avail. Would rattle when driving at low speeds on rough road surfaces.

One day i noticed the top of the radiator. The radiator has two pins on each end which stick up maybe an inch. The pins fit into a hole in a rubber bit. I noticed the hole in the rubber bit had wallowed out of round. I cut off a short piece of rubber hose which fit over each pin and removed the slack of the original rubber bit. To my surprise the rattle stopped. i guess the worn factory rubber bit was allowing the radiator to rattle about at low speed. The rattle went away with speed as the wind pushed the radiator back. Point being it was not where I kept looking.

Watched a video of a repair. Upon removing some parts a tool was found in a pocket. . After the repair a rattle which had plagued the vehicle was gone. The tool had been rattling around in that pocket.

just saying.

 

[blankman]

Yeah, it usually seems like most of these noises kind of give themselves away. At least in prior experiences I’ve had with stuff like this.

This is the only one that has really tripped me up.

Went through the same thing when trying to diagnose mine. Mind you i had just done shocks and springs and sway bars. Drove me nuts for two weekends trying to figure out if I screwed something up. Thats when I said screw it, tore the assembly off the front , tore the first one down and checked that bearing in the plate. It also destroyed the upper bushing.

You might also want to check the upper strut bushings. That's another possibility that can cause the same noise. Plates will need to come off to check that also.

 

[SCP440]

I had the same problem with a different car a couple of years ago and it turned out to be the struts, no play was felt anywhere but I was lucky enough to be leant a pare of front struts and the noise stopped.
It is very difficult to simulate the amount of movement a vehicle gets on the road and even with the struts in a vice there was obvious play.

 

[Hoose71]

Kind on an out of right field response, but have you inspected your engine mounts? Of course, you'd probably notice it more under acceleration if that were the case.

 

[Johnny maverick]

I bought a Chassis ear for this kind of problem. Works great in narrowing down to a location.

 

[Metz302]

Kind on an out of right field response, but have you inspected your engine mounts? Of course, you'd probably notice it more under acceleration if that were the case.

I have seen this mentioned once or twice but there are no obvious signs of anything besides a clunk.

No harsh vibrations while driving or idle.

Not to say it can’t be a factor but at this point I doubt it. I’ll have the shop go over it

 

[Metz302]

I had the same problem with a different car a couple of years ago and it turned out to be the struts, no play was felt anywhere but I was lucky enough to be leant a pare of front struts and the noise stopped.
It is very difficult to simulate the amount of movement a vehicle gets on the road and even with the struts in a vice there was obvious play.

I really hope that isn’t the issue. These things were like $1600 for the pair of 4 from Steeda 🫩

 

[Strokerswild]

Drop any tools down into a front fender?

 

[Metz302]

Drop any tools down into a front fender?

Now that would be the cheapest, best alternative to this lol.

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