Hi - seeking advise on how to go about checking if my strut is good/bad. I have KYB struts installed around 10 years ago on my 97 Honda Accord LX 4-cyl and Autozone struts in the front. Whenever I go over potholes I hear clunking sound from the rear passenger side wheel. Rear upper control arms were replaced 4 years back with TRW. Recently when I replaced the boots on them, I noticed the rear passenger control arm ball joint was very loose compared to the driver side. So, I am wondering if a bad strut would have caused the ball joint to wear faster than normal due to excessive movement? I am wondering if there is a way to find out if the strut is bad without disassembling it, pushing down on the corner does not tell much when other 3 struts are good. I don't see any excessive bounce when I push on that corner. I just don't want to throw money at parts without confirming. Mechanic shop can't confirm either, they just want to replace the parts.
Please advise.

 

A bad strut will stop dampening the spring bouncing repeatedly, but the geometry of the suspension will be the same so I don't think it would wear out a ball joint like you're describing. Pushing on a corner really is helpful to diagnose a shot shock absorber provided you weigh more than 100lbs, just really shove hard and a good shock will make the body settle out nicely. Your shop really can't get a definite diagnosis? Suspensions are usually easy to do. Ball joints are easy to test, so are you sure the passenger ball joint is still good? It should be stiff. Have the lower control arm bushings been checked?

 

Only known issue is, I see severe cracks on rear trailing arm bushings that connect to the body of the car under rear passenger seat. I want to replace them before I change any other suspension components but not finding the courage as it involves removing parking brake cables(have drum brakes in the rear). I tried replacing rear brake pads in the past and that did not go well.

Once I went to a mechanic regarding the same clunking noise, he did not notice issue with struts.