Knocking noise in front end
 

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2001 Accord

Been hearing this for about a year now and am getting tired of it. When driving slowly over bumps I hear a clunk, knock or what ever you want to call it from the front end, seems to be mostly on the RH side. My tire man said my struts were shot, so I replaced them with factory equivalent Monroes, along with the bushings and other hardware, but not the mounts.

Still the same noise, I replaced the lower ball joints, Still there. My tire man asked me if I replaced the strut mounts? I told him no....what’s the point, they are a heavy steel cup with 5 studs welded onto them for mounting, and there is a rubber boot the spring goes against....there is absolutely nothing visibly worn or wrong with them. He said I still needed to replace them....I don’t buy it.

I think there is a swaybar bushing or something like that causing the knock.

I have jacked up, put on ramps, everything short of hanging under the car while moving (wish I could) to recreate the knock when setting still, but it cant be done!

Any ideas and or pictures would be appreciated very much!

Thank You

Re: Knocking noise in front end (jhelmick1)
 

Same noise here, left side of car.

Would really appreciate anyone who has been through this problem and corrected this before!!!

Re: Knocking noise in front end (lunarone)
 

i have a knocking noise at the rear passenger side over the slightest bumps. It turns out that the coils of the springs were hitting each other. I put some foam tape in between the coils and it stopped the noise. I plan on replacing the spring soon.

While the car is on the ground, take a look at the springs and see if they are touching.

Re: Knocking noise in front end (gen5accstilez)
 

that's odd... I'll have to look into that. I'd be surprised if that was the solution! Thanks for the help! I'll try it soon and get back

Re: Knocking noise in front end (lunarone)
 

No spring problem, It is a definite solid knock, I suspect swaybar or something like that, It sounds as if someone has a hard rubber mallet and hitting against the bottom of the chassis.

I had that problem on a civic 4 door it turned out to be a bad bushing one the sway bar underneath. Where the bar mounts to the chasis there are to mounts that have bushings in them and when worn out the bar hits the steel bracket and knocks pretty hard. Took me a long time to figure that out. Might be the same problem? Hope so at least!

CV joint.

Re: (ziggy!talon)
 

I have always been told CV Joints will make a clicking of knocking noise when either: turning or going from drive to reverse, similar to what a drive line does when the U-Joints are shot.

Re: (jhelmick1)
 

Havent' had time to take a look yet on mine but I'm guessing it is a swaybar bushing as well. Just replaced the CV joints not long ago, they were a different problem (clicking while turning, pulsing under acceleration.)

Your CV joints will click not knock the way you are describing. If it is the same problem I had it usually only happens when you drive over speed bumps potholes or over any rough bumps! And then it is a hard knocking noise like something is loose and something is smacking around under there! Is that your problem? If so check sway bar bushings.

Darren

Re: Knocking noise in front end (jhelmick1)
 

I'm 95% sure its the sway bar. I have replaced upper and lower bushings, hub assemblies on both sides, and new axles both sides too. there's nothing else it could be.On mine it looks like the end stabilizer bushings are shot.

What would happen if you removed the sway bar?

Re: Knocking noise in front end (tonyguns)
 

My endlinks were trashed when I bought my 96. Repalacing them didn't fix this clunk for me, so I'm still looking for a fix.

You can remove the sway bar to rule it out, but your car will probably feel like it's going to roll over around corners. I would only do so temporarily.

Re: Knocking noise in front end (m735is)
 

True... good suggestion. The only other thing it could be are the shocks. At least on my car. Motor mounts are new, and everything on this car is tight. I'll post up when I figure this out.

Re: Knocking noise in front end (jhelmick1)
 

Here's an easy knock test..

Drive over the bump straight on and it knocks, usually your shock/strut assembly.

Drive over the bump at an angle, one wheel at a time and it knocks, it's usually do to your sway bar.

Easiest way for me to diagnose it would be to just remove the darn thing and drive it over a bump again.

Good Luck.

Re: Knocking noise in front end (PnX-R)
 

sounds like the same thing my 92 lx did. i found the sway bar end link bushings trashed and replaced them, all good from there.

Its definitly the cv joints. ive had a 96 accord DX and now have a 94 EX and they both had busted cv joints. get it fixed or youll wheel will rip to the side while your driving..

Re: (That 94 Accord)
 

My issue was resolved by replacing the sway bar end links. The cv's were not the issue since mine were new.

Re: Knocking noise in front end (jhelmick1)
 

I've owned a 1990 Civic SI HB with a B16A motor swap.

Changed control arms, upper and lower ball joints, tie rod ends basically the car has a whole new front end.

Just put Tockico struts, Eibach coils all around, still I get that same annoying "Clunk" noise coming from my passenger front wheel when driving over bumps and potholes.

Finally found out after sticking my head under the car for some time its actually the link bushings for the lower stabilizer (sway) bar,
The bushings are so worn that there is a 1/2 inch gap in between links, so every time driving over uneven road these two points hit each other causing that noise.

Re: Knocking noise in front end
 

bringing this back, okie so am getting this clucking noise when i drive slow over bumps in my 94 bubble. i just changed the upper and lower controls, ball joint, tie rods, and i have blackworks coilovers. i checked everything , nothing is loose, the alxes are fairly new also like a month. i dont get a vibration when am driving in the wheel or anything. engine mounts i have hasport racing ones and i dont think there is anything wrong with them. i feel like when i hit a bump what ever the rack n pinion is connected to is what makes the noise. idk am clueless. any help?

Re: Knocking noise in front end
 

I would crawl under there and double check everything to make sure nothing is loose. Use a pry bar to pry on certain components to check for play and check out all those bushings under there. maybe lift the front end, place on jackstands and then place a jack under the wheels to raise them up and then drop the jack to let the wheel drop back to its resting place.

Re: Knocking noise in front end
 

Sounds like you need to replace the sway bar links and bushings. You may not be able to feel the play in them but just the slightest amount will cause noise. This is very common in accords.

Re: Knocking noise in front end
 

I found the source of my hollow clunking or knocking noise after making sure its none of the common things that most people say to look for like anti-sway bar end links etc.
It turns out that the axles have end play in them. At low speeds and over uneven pavement the wheel moves up and down and the axle doesn't have much centrifugal force since it is spinning slow enough, allowing it to move along the axis of the axle and therefore ends up slamming the wheel hub assembly producing that jiggling hollow knocking noise. The reason you cannot hear it at higher speeds is because of two things: #1 other noises drowned it out and #2 the centrifugal force on the axle is high enough to stop or nearly stop it moving along it's axis and slamming into the wheel hub assembly.
I checked this out last evening when while under my car I grabbed the half axles on the front of my 2003 acura 3.2tl and as fast and hard as I could I moved them toward the wheel and then away repeating this back and forth motion as rapidly as I could and what did I hear but the exact same hollow clunking sound I hear while driving it slowly over uneven pavement. Is there a fix for this, well having just determined the source, I am still in my investigatory phase....

Re: Knocking noise in front end
 

thetinkerer, did you determine if the CV joint was the source of your clunking?

The symptoms of my 2002 Accord sound very similar. When I go over a bump I hear a clunk from the front drivers side of the car. I have replaced both front struts, sway bar links, sway bar bushings & the front drivers side lower ball joint but the clunk is still there. The car doesn't make any strange sounds while driving on flat pavement, turning, accelerating, or stopping and I can't reproduce the sound with the car stopped. The steering isn't loose.

It seems like I have pounded and pried on everything and I haven't found anything that is loose. The clunk is more noticeable when it is colder so it seems like it might be a rubber bushing or a lubrication issue. I tried to replace the radius rod (strut arm?) bushings yesterday but it looks like I have to take off the steering knuckle and half-shaft to get to the bolts on the lower control arm. If the half shaft might be to blame, I'll replace it at the same time I take apart this other stuff to replace the radius rod bushings.

I can shake the driver's side inner CV joint up and down and it seems loose to me, but I don't know how much play there should be in this part. There is much less play in this part when I try to shake it front to back and there isn't much axial play, at least with it attached on both ends.

I have held the brakes while pressing on the accelerator, both in drive and in reverse, and I didn't hear the noise. I don't know if this rules out motor mounts or not, but it is something else I've tried.

Initially I was avoiding bumps so I wouldn't hear the noise. Now I hit as many bumps as possible because I'm hoping something will fall off of the car and make the problem more obvious :P

If anyone has ideas, I'd appreciate hearing them!

Re: Knocking noise in front end (jhelmick1)
 

I have the exact same noise as OP and I have a 2k crv. Mine makes the noise when I go over a bump straight or at an angle so your test would work for my trouble shooting. Wish I could find the problem. Will subscribe to this thread.

Re: Knocking noise in front end
 

No its not the CV joints (I replaced the half axles on my other acura tl and they knock also) the knocking noise you hear are the half axles that have end play in them....get under the front of your car and grab the half axles.....move then back and forth (side to side of the vehicle) and you will hear the hollow knocking noise as the axles hit the wheel hub......my 07 odyssey doesnt do this and I wondered why...until I got under it and found that the half axles dont have enough end play in them to set up enough travel to create the knocking noise (honda probably started to find this out and changed some numbers on their engineering prints)....unfortuntately there doesnt seem to be a thing anyone can do to fix this.....its built into the design of the system (dimensions and tolerances of the parts). Seems we will just have to live with it..