Figured I'd ask here since most everyone who has one races it and maybe has ran across this problem.

When taking a hard, fast corner and when applying the gas (sometimes not), I get a slight "knocking/clunking" noise from somewhere up front--like something is moving around either in the suspension, steering or around the subframe area. This is what I have done to track it down:

-tighten all subframe bolts and suspension bolts
-New axles/CV's (not rebuilt units, brand new units)
-replace motor mounts
-replace all swaybar bushings
-replace radius rod bushings (which I thought would take care of the problem)
-shock/springs and tophat bushings are all brand new

I don't know exactly what is moving as I can only reproduce at high G-loads, but surely there is some worn-out bushing or bolt that I've missed that is allowing something to shift around. And no, it is not coming from my coilovers as I am not using the sleeved-type.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Have you considered the health of your CV joints?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rice_classic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Have you considered the health of your CV joints?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Brand spankin' new (not rebuilt units either). That was one of the first things I replaced and the noise remained. I'll edit my first post to show that.

 

steering rack bushings?

or the "torque rod" (if these are called radius rod, ignore my lack of technical mumbo jumbo)... the ones that bolt to the front cross member to the LCA.

battery?

wheel hub?

lug nuts?

upper A arm?

 

Radius rod was my first guess but you covered that. Ball joints and upper and lower control arm bushings? Not a lot otherwise remaining.

 

Steering rack bushings could be a possibility now that I think about it.

Radius rods are attached firm on one end and new poly bushings on the other, so that's not the problem.

Upper A-arm is a possibility as well, but everything was tight when I checked. Maybe that will give me an excuse to get the bushings pressed in just to make sure, though.

Battery and wheels are all ok--this has been an ongoing search since last fall so I have definitely checked all of the obvious little items like this.

 

I would also like to know what might be causing those noises cause I have a weird noise coming from my CRX as well when I take hard turns. Sometimes it sounds like a 'clunking' noise and some other times it will sounds like a 'pinging' noise. Its weird! I replaced both ball joints, axles and tie rods. Only thing I didn't really check was the front sway bar and the steering rack. What else could it be???

 

What tires are you running... R-compounds?

Are you certain it's from the front?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Todd00 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">And no, it is not coming from my coilovers as I am not using the sleeved-type.</TD></TR></TABLE>

So your springs have zero free movement when the suspension is unloaded?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by phat-S &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

So your springs have zero free movement when the suspension is unloaded?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes. The beauty of adjustable perch and shock body suspension


Azenis in a autox situation, so I see a lot of tight and abrupt turns that normal driving or HPDE drivers probably won't see.

I'm positive the noise is coming from up front. This noise is definitely from the subframe or steering/control arms area and not something as simple as an axle or tire rubbing or something like that.

And it is damn tough to reproduce--it can be done if you go fast, crank the wheel sharply, hit the accelerator, then listen for clunks while the car is fighting to turn. Low speed manovers and you don't know anything is wrong.

Keep the suggestions coming though--it is possible I overlooked something dumb. Although the steering rack bushings are gonna get replaced tonight when I get home, for sure.

 

A-arms hitting the frame?

 

Damn, this sounds like the problem i'm having since the last event except I havent started to replace stuff yet. I was thinking axles as well, but then it only does at high g-loads. From my experience a clicking axle will do it at almost any load. Mine never makes noise when driving around on crappy street tires, even when pushing it through a corner.

I'll keep the suggestions posted here in mind when I dig deeper into the issue this weekend and post any findings here...

 

check the upper balljoints. i am chacing a noise myself, and im pritty sure one of the clunks is a lower balljoint (since i did the uppers).

-spenc

 

hahaha, this thread has turned into the
"Chasing down a noise my ED makes!"

I have a noise coming from the rear right suspension during soft right hand-turns.

sounds like the spring is rubbing against the shock tower... it's been doing it since I've lowered the car 4 years ago.

nothing's fallen off, so I'm not worried

 

I get the same one driven just described. Other than that it's basically fine.

 

I would say it's most likely your upper and lower ball joints and/or you rack end bushing in your steering rack. I had a similar noise, and replaced the upper control arms w/ upper and lower ball joints and it went away.

 

Think back to when there was no noise. What have you changed since then. Always suspect NEW parts are defective until they can prove to you that they are not.

Many a time the newest part on the car was the culprit.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Grumpy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Think back to when there was no noise. What have you changed since then. Always suspect NEW parts are defective until they can prove to you that they are not.

Many a time the newest part on the car was the culprit.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've had the car since summer 2001 and have put maybe 300 miles on it total since then, and the rest of the time it's been trailered. It has literally been in the back of my garage for 3 years. Sooo...the noise is a new one to me.

 

Todd,

I went through this with the CRX a little while ago. I would bet money it is the steering rack bushing. Andy Hollis did a pretty good write up on the replacement of this bushing on his civic. Do a search.

Eric

 

Consider the possibility that its the shocks as well. I have GC AD shocks on my car, and when the Nitrogen charge gets low, there's a bit of free play in the shock, but as soon as I charge the nitrogen back up, all the clunking goes away.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jaker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Consider the possibility that its the shocks as well. I have GC AD shocks on my car, and when the Nitrogen charge gets low, there's a bit of free play in the shock, but as soon as I charge the nitrogen back up, all the clunking goes away.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Slightly off direction of the thread...Do not drive the car if you suspect that the nitrogen may be low. If a mono-tube is run under pressure, use risks causing problems allowing gas or oil to pass to the wrong side of the divider piston. Schrader (sp?) valves are nice and common for ease of refilling but they also tend to leak pressure really easily and the shock charge is very high pressure but extremely low volume so just the faintest leakage out the valve can be huge. On the other hand, you need to hope that your pressure loss is all through the Schrader valve and not past the divider piston already as that will make them need to be rebuilt.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jaker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Consider the possibility that its the shocks as well. I have GC AD shocks on my car, and when the Nitrogen charge gets low, there's a bit of free play in the shock, but as soon as I charge the nitrogen back up, all the clunking goes away.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Shocks are brand new, and they did this with my other coilovers I had on the car as well. At this point in time I'm starting to suspect it's the steering rack or a ball joint. I am 100% confident it is nothing related to shocks/springs.

 

Thanks Lee for the heads up. I just got a rebuild kit. I will not delay in doing the work now.

 

Just want to chime in. I have a 1990 Civic Si, that's my daily driver and auto-x car. On the auto-x courses, under high loads and the most stressfull corners, I experience a pretty major clunking and knocking. At the last autox I swore that my whole front end was going to fall. I have the whole ES bushings kit waiting to be installed, and I thought that might help fix the problem. There's a post about steering racks, and fixing a bushing in there that I just bumped: I'm going to look into fixing that too, and hopefully all our Civics/CRX's will be a little more quiet next time on the auto-x!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by p1driftfiend &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just want to chime in. I have a 1990 Civic Si, that's my daily driver and auto-x car. On the auto-x courses, under high loads and the most stressfull corners, I experience a pretty major clunking and knocking. At the last autox I swore that my whole front end was going to fall. I have the whole ES bushings kit waiting to be installed, and I thought that might help fix the problem. There's a post about steering racks, and fixing a bushing in there that I just bumped: I'm going to look into fixing that too, and hopefully all our Civics/CRX's will be a little more quiet next time on the auto-x!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Make sure to keep us updated, within the next 3 months I'm going to replace all of my bushings, including the rta one. Hopefully it fixes all of the noises I get.