Clunk in front end...any ideas??

[Jason E]

I started noticing this clunk ever so slightly around 500 miles...now at 4,400 its much more common, and appears to be coming from the RF. I saw the brake pedal TSB posted on here, but that only affects up to '01...for '02s, any ideas? I plan to bring it in shortly anyways, just was wondering why...

This after I just had it in Tuesday for my driver window being messed up...a clip in the door broke and the window got out of alignment. Off to a great start I see :mad:

[RamAir]

front left strut brace (thats what went on my 2001 GA GT)

[tejohnson]

Could this be the control arms?

There was a service manual correction... (Here is something similar to what alldatadiy.com says)

1. Position the vehicle on a level surface at curb height, supported by the tires.

2. Loosen the four lower control arm to front suspension crossmember attaching bolts.

3. Tighten.

- Tighten the two lower control arm to suspension crossmember front attaching bolts to 45 lb ft plus 120°rotation.

- Tighten the two lower control arm to suspension crossmember rear attaching bolts to 74 lb ft plus 180°rotation.

[RamAir]

Theres no way to tell since i haven't heard the sound but give it a try, it's not a very difficult thing to do so worth a shot!

[tejohnson]

I was talking to a GM service guy today about my tranny line pressure and we were on the subject. He mentioned something about the tops of the strut assy. making a clunking noise as well, I have the same thing, but I'm replacing my struts and springs since they are about shot anyways. It really is hard to track these "clunk" gremlins down ;)

I was planning on checking out the ball joints as well...

[RamAir]

Well I'm glad to hear you found the problem, hope it works for ya

[louveres]

I just took my car in for a similar noise that seems to be from the front strut. Service guy from the dealership stated that they had to lube something in or around my strut. I will go for a ride tonight and see what they did, and if I still hear it, I will take it back to the dealer until they figure it out. But that clunck drives me crazy. It's only on low speeds.

[tejohnson]

Most likely he regreased the bearings. The strut assy for the front is assembled like the following:

-strut piston nut
-support/mount
-dust seal
-bearings
-spring seat
-upper insulator
-coil spring
-lower insulator
-strut

A lot of times they just replace the following as a single assembly:

-dust seal
-bearings
-spring seat

It is only about $21.00 for each assy, and the bearings are already packed with grease.

I replaced mine outright. What happened was the rubber on the top "dust cover" (which sits/rotates on the bearings, and is under the support/mount) wore off. I suppose this can cause a "chatter" from time to time (metal on metal).

I didn't do this to avoid the noise, I just replaced them since they were excessivly worn (while I was adding KYB struts and Eibach springs). The struts were so worn that I could easily compress them by hand and it took about 2 minutes for the pistons to re-extend (I was pretty much riding only on springs)

[louveres]

I got my car back and it seems a lot better. It is much tighter on the suspention, I like it so far.