cityofcaterpillars

Car is EG hatch w/ d16 kny shocks and ground control coil overs.

Car makes a clunking noise from the drivers side wheel area. It only does it when going slow and straight. It's also not consistent. It isn't caused by bumps in the road. Car also has started pulling to the left. Just had alignment done a month ago.

Any ideas? I was leaning towards axle

TomCat39

Have you poked around down there yet?

You might just see an obvious sign of something amiss before having to go through the other normal suspension diagnostic procedures.

cityofcaterpillars

I have not yet. It's been freezing out. I wanted to see some suggestions before In went out and pulled the tire

TomCat39

In all honesty, that is the blind leading the blind.

I'm sure you already know there is quite a few things that can go clunking. Without hearing it makes it a blind crap shoot on our end.

I would actually test the ball joints first before pulling the tire. Rule that out as a possibility and then go inspecting with the tire off.

I strongly suspect you are going to discover a torn boot though.

x.l.r.8

grab the wheel, a shot ball joint will be obvious, drag on the wheel could be a wheel bearing but more likely a cv joint, could also be a track rod end, I would jack it up and start pulling the wheel about, if nothing obvious then load the wheel so the suspension is compressed and look for something simple like a broken spring, lose/worn bushing, and again a drive shaft. the hardest working parts under there are the drive shafts and springs, then ball joints so its likely depending on previous maintenance to be somewhat in that order, luckily most of these cars has had a shock/spring upgrade at some point so probably heading to ball joint then drive shaft. but gonna take getting cold for 10 minutes to have a proper look

Potato Em1

I have the same issue you're describing on my EM1. For me it's the shock itself. I could hear the spring bind and almost pop at times. It's pretty much blown out lol. The cold weather has made the noise louder and more often. I'm loading up on suspension parts during the winter so I can replace them as soon as it starts getting warmer.

cityofcaterpillars

Thanks guys. Im heading out later today to start working on it. I appreciate all the suggestions. i will let everyone know what I find out

cityofcaterpillars

So I replaced the lower ball joint and outer tie rod end. Both were pretty worn. I got an alignment and the clunking sound is still there. It also seems to pull to the left a bit now. Could it be a wheel bearing?

tamboo

bad lower control arm bushings can throw off alignment.
put in prothane bushings 14months ago...bad already.
i guess there's a reason why jc whitney sells prothane
yet rockauto does not. f u prothane!!! 8(
went with energy suspension this time. fingers crossed...