I know that there his been a lot written about this but I tried everything and still cannot find the source of my problem with my 2003 Coupe with an Automatic Transmission. When I go over a bumpy road at < 20 mph I hear a clunking sound from my front end and sounds like it is coming from the drivers side.

I checked the following:

1. Struts (new Koni Inserts have been installed and I have switched the insert to see if I had a bad insert)
2. New Moog Spring were installed last year at all four corners
3. Wheel bearings appear to be fine no play or noise
   1. mounted tire no no play up and down or side to side
4. Lower ball joints have no play, I recently installed new dust covers and greased the ball joints
5. Front Lower control arm bearings were replaced < 1 year ago with Moog
6. Rear Lower control arm bushing were inspected no problem found (no significant play)
7. Upper Strut bearings were cleaned and greased
8. Upper Strut mounts appear to be in good shape with no rot
9. Tie Rod bearing were inspected and in good shape (no play)
10. Both drive axles were replaced with new (passenger side last year, drivers side last week)
11. Sway bar end links were replace about 2 years ago with Moog and have no play frequently greased
12. Sub-frame bolts were re-torqued
13. I also checked the motor mounts and there is nothing that appears out of spec
14. Every bolt has be torqued to spec

I'm at a loss, my next step will to borrow a GoPro to see if I can pin point the problem, any other places to look would be appreciated

 

how do the compliance bushings look ? it's possible for aftermarket strut mounts to not fit the strut shaft they are mounted to so they allow for a clunking when moving around

 

Thanks for the reply.

The compliance bearings are good there is no play loaded and unloaded.

The strut mounts are OEM

 

I had clunking front brake calipers on an Odyssey once. The slide pins were worn and new pins/bolts fixed the problem.
I also had bad ball joints and bad front stabilizer bar end links cause noises in my current Honda.
Seems like you have covered most potential areas of concern.

 

I'd suspect something other than the suspension at that point. Maybe you have broken exhaust hangers and the pipe is moving enough to hit the body of the car?
You could get creative and mount some kind of camera in various locations and observe the moving components.
Like if you have a gopro camera you could stick somewhere to look at the suspension, or anything else that is suspect.

 

It has been a while and still cannot find the source of the "clunking" noise coming from the front end, the car is almost at 95K. As an update I completely replaced the exhaust from the motor back. It was time the flanges on the cat and the cat-back tube were completely rusted and broke apart.

I was hoping at this point something would break that would make it obvious but did an under the chassis check and cannot find anything obvious.

I noticed three things:

1. When I initially put the car in to Drive or Reverse and hold down the brake and give it the gas there is a definite clunking sound; only the initial time it is put into a gear.
2. There appears to be some excessive lean (at least to my eyes) on the engine in the rear when the car was jacked up applying the break and the gas at the same time. I jacked up the front and both sides of the engine to see if there was excessive wear on the motor mounts but did not see anything obvious.
3. Also it appears that very sharp bumps is where the clunking is most obvious like a difference in height between two sections of concrete road, with other smoother bumps the clunking sound is not heard

Any one in the NYC metro area (I live in Nassau County) that can help diagnose, I keep this car in great shape and is my daily driver but this noise is driving me nuts?

 

Motor mounts can "look" ok, but whether or not they ARE... that's a different question. Check the driver side mounts. Take them off and flex them opposite to the direction that weight is placed on the mount, look for tears. If it's happening when the car is under power, then it's got to be drive train or immediate suspension near the wheels (LCA bushings... double check the forward, vertically mounted ones.)

 

Thanks for the reply. I did not really want to remove the motor mounts but will if you really think it could cause this type of clunking sound.

Regarding the LCA, the front bearing were replaced and I double checked them again this weekend with a pry bar and the front end loaded.

 

Strange! My Si (EP3) had a clunk when power was applied, it was the driver side tranny mount (K20 is backwards from the D17) and my EM2 coupe had a clunk on the whole front end that was the LCA bushings... I'd check the engine mounts if it was my car, but you should be able to shift the engine a little by hand in the bay if that's what's bad.

 

I checked the motor mounts and could not find any problems.

I have Koni Yellows and they were adjusted fully soft and decided to firm them up a bit and noticed that the 'sound' was diminished although not eliminated. I'm thinking now that the Moog spring and the Koni's may not be a good mix. The springs pre-date the Koni's the original Koni's I had needed to be replaced (under warranty).

 

I had a mysterious clunking but seemed to come from the back, turned out to be the caliper was loose.

 

I know it's unrelated to the clunk going in gear, but I had a Civic clunk because we forgot the battery tiedown and it was bouncing around.

Did you also make sure the 3 rear transmission mount bracket mounting bolts were tight? I had a hell of a time getting those all lined up. I know it can be a huge PITA to double check.

 

 

Specifically the huge bracket that goes to the transmission but yeah check the others if you're in there. I don't believe they loosen over time but you never know if they weren't tightened properly in the first place.

 

After almost a year of a noisy front end, I attached a GOPRO to the suspension in a few places and sent the videos to the distributors of the MOOG LCA - bearing and Koni.

Turns out that the problemw was with the LCA - bearing that I replaced about 4 years ago with a MOOG spherical bearing. I contacted the distributor and ordered a new one and sent the old one back for a complete refund (they even offered to refund any installation cost).

Front end is like new with no noises; what a relief after all this time, hoping something would break so it was obvious. I had unloaded and loaded the suspension and check with a big crow-bar and could not detect any problems, but the GOPRO really came in handy...

 

exactly what part are you referring to ?

 

The front lower control arm bearing on the drivers side (aka control arm compliance bushing)

 

Told ya it was the LCA bushings

 

Yes you did.

 

you keep calling it a front lower control arm "bearing" but it's a "bushing"