The Jar

Accord 99 140k EX 2DR manual trans.

I have an increasing clunking noise in the front left suspension. It is not speed related. Sounds like a delicate metal to metal thing. More likely to happen when only one wheel hits a hole or unever surface; sometimes when I start moving the car forward (stick).

I try to jump over the front, swing it, jerked all the supension parts and found no loose, visibly worn or making similar noise parts.

I had several issues with the suspension so I already replaced: struts , strut mounts and bumpers, all engine mounts, sway bar links, sway bar bushings. Everything seems to be tight and working well or actually it was well for a few months. The current clunk nois is not like any of the previous ones associated with the bushings or struts.

My suspect is one of the ball joints - upper or lower or maybe both but I do not see anything wrong with it and I cannotr copy the noise when jerking it.

Do you have any other ideas-replacing those ball joints seems to be very expensive. I plan to drive it unitl I can be sure what it is. The noise is definately progressing every week. thanks

sony224422

possible that your axles are going bad.. jack your car up and put it in nuetral. spin both tires going straight and see if you can hear it. then try turning the steering wheel left and checking them again. then turn right and try again.

claud122003

is it when your turning? it could be your cv joints.

The Jar

I do not have any noise while turing or simply spinning it so probably not it. It is a single clunk noise like something was loose and when pushed metal touches metal.

Nathan007

I bet i have the same exact noise on my 01 coupe manual. While going over bumps, as small as they might be, i have this light metallic clunk coming from the front, seems left AND right. I still havent managed to find out what it is exactly :/

Speaking of axles, does this sound normal? (possibly related?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-2e2TXw3qw

The Jar

Hard to tell based on this video. I know that when you set on neutral and try to spin it, you will here a "click" in the transmission - a tooth touches tooth or something like that but it is normal.

RICKSAUTOMOTIVE

we found something interesting today....91 accord LX knocking when turning. ball joins look okay. hmm??? checked everything by turning the wheel and its all fine. put it in gear and into drive-everything fine. finally we dont know so we just overlook it as a fluke we cant duplicate. send it out. but WAIT!! once its on the ground we heard the knock when turning so back in the air it goes. same results but we all heard it. so we know its there. we set it on the ground and then could duplicate the sound while turning the wheel. but we couldnt see what was moving. so we put it in the air and used tall screw jacks to put a load on the tires as if the car was on the ground. got a couple of brave guys to hold the screw jacks incase they flew out wile we turned the wheel. (that didnt happen though) but while turning the steering wheel we could see the steering rack shift-and we heard the knock. when we removed the cover on the drivers side we forun one of the power steering rack bolts on top of the cover. and the other one very loose. the passenger side bolts were tight so we just put the bolts back in and replaced the cover again. the knock was gone.
possibly this could be the issue so it wont hurt to check it out.

sony224422

you know.. i found one of my upper control arm bushings was clunking.. it was a weird sound, but i couldn't get it to do it until it was on the ground.. i ended up finding it by accident. i leaned against my car and i heard it. and i kept shaking the car til i found it. that bushing wasn't bad.. it was just making a light contact with the other part of it.. like the lube in there dried out.

The Jar

Thanks for the info I will look at the steering and inject some greaseinto the joints.

RICKSAUTOMOTIVE

yeah let us know if you fix it. i had never seen the bolt fall out of the steering rack mount before. i'm gussin the car has been leaking for a while now from the oil pan gasket and flying back onto the steering rack and possibly the oil and vibrations caused the bolts to start loosening, but IDK. i cant see anyone removing the bolt and placing it on top of that splash shield intensionaly. the bolts for the shield were full of oil too so i dont think they had been removed recently to play a bad joke on someone. like i said-that was new to me LOL glad we got that issue solved though before the customer got into an accident and got hurt and/ or costed the customer more money. yeah-i focus on trying to save my customers money LOL odd but it works well for us here

The Jar

I have nailed it down. It was the sway bar link bolt getting loose. Sway bar link and lower arm bolt. It got more loose and I was able to jerk the car hard enough to make the clunk noise.