Help Diagnose a Clunk

[miatagirl77]

Later part of last year, I heard a clunk going into turns. Front right. Not very loud, and only upon weight transfer.

FF to my new rims/tires and everything sounds loose now (sounds, not feels). Clunking over bumps, settling into corners and upon weight transfer under heavy braking.

All the suspension components are stock except the coilovers, which were put in about 7 years ago. Tein HA. They probably have about 50K kms on them.

Got under the car last night and the endlinks are solid. Tie rods and ball joints are solid. Control arms look fine, sway bars are fine.

I'm thinking the coilovers are done/need a re-valve, but I'd like to exhaust the cheaper alternatives/solutions first before I go and get new ones or send them away to Cali.

Any ideas?

[Cavemanrjc]

Bring it up and ill go over it.
If your going to be in Barrie next weekend i can look at it then to let you know what it needs
possibly even get parts if its early enough on Saturday

did you go to a lower profile tire with the new wheels?
are you just hearing the road seams?

Did you check the end links with the suspension at ride hight or hanging?

if hanging you might not feel the play as it will load the bar

I find more clunks on a drive on hoist then on a 2 post.

did you have the jack stands under the control arms?
if so you wont feel B/J Play as it loads them :)

have to check both ways for th different components

is it a double clunk when pulling in to driveways = suspect end links and bushings.

If its more under load (braking) as its not fwd it should not make noise on take off. = B/J or control arm bushing.

Strut mounts can make noise under braking
as can a bad strut bushing. Dose it feel like its changing alignment?

is there a brake pulsation? if enough play in the outer tie rod ends to hear it will give you a shake under braking as well

hope this helps

[JoeT]

If you've never lubed your swaybar bushing, it's 99 percent the cause of the clunking you've mentioned. Its not the struts, those would sound more like a hammer hitting your frame and you'd feel it resonate. If coilies need revalving, your tires would show it as well.

Go take off your swaybar mounts and apply liberal amounts of wheel bearing grease on the sucker.

Hope this helps.

[Cavemanrjc]

Noooooo!!!!!! don't use petroleum based grease on rubber or poly bushing. It will cause them to swell
use silicon based lube, energy suspension makes a good product for them.

If the sway bar bushings are poly then order a set, jenn has not made it 6 months on a set yet.
but thats also 50k worth of driving for her

[miatagirl77]

I've never lubed the sway bar bushings. They should be rubber since I've never swapped them out. You're talking about the part that joins the end links right?

Where do I get this energy suspension lube?

Thanks for all the help!

I'm going to start with the sway bar bushings and go from there. Sounds like the easiest fix so might as well start there.

If that doesn't help, I'll dig further.

Thanks for the offer to look at my car Rob! I'm not going to be around Saturday, but will be Sunday. Hopefully I can figure it out before that!

[miatagirl77]

did you go to a lower profile tire with the new wheels?
are you just hearing the road seams?

Profile stayed the same and it's not road seams

Did you check the end links with the suspension at ride hight or hanging?

I checked while the suspension was hanging, which means I'll have to give it a quick check while the car is on the ground right?

did you have the jack stands under the control arms?
if so you wont feel B/J Play as it loads them :)

Jack stands were not under the control arms

is it a double clunk when pulling in to driveways = suspect end links and bushings.

If its more under load (braking) as its not fwd it should not make noise on take off. = B/J or control arm bushing.

I'm going to pay more attention to this and let you know

Strut mounts can make noise under braking
as can a bad strut bushing. Dose it feel like its changing alignment?

Car and alignment feel solid

is there a brake pulsation? if enough play in the outer tie rod ends to hear it will give you a shake under braking as well

I'm going to pay more attention to this and let you know

Thanks again Rob!!

[Cavemanrjc]

sway bar bushings are the inboard bushings on the bar holding it to the chaise

the lube can be had at performance improvements and other speed shops

But if the bushings ore stock its more then likely time for an upgrade / replacement :)

[miatagirl77]

Upgrade. Thought you'd say that!

I think I'll get the grease, see if that's the issue, then source some bushings out as a winter project.

[JoeT]

Since the bushings are practically gone (clunking) a bit of swelling by using petroleum grease may stave off the inevitable for a bit of time.

Bushings specially OEM ones dry out and become like rock, plus they wear out, which leaves a microgap between the bar and the bushing, which is why you hear the clunk on uneven surfaces. Example, when your right wheel goes up onto a bump, you hear a clunk. Or when you're entering a driveway diagonally, you hear a clunk. Or when you're driving on uneven roads, you hear a clunk which makes the front end feel loose. These are all symptoms of "ovaled" sway bar bushings.

Hope this helps.

[miatagirl77]

Do you think if I grease the hell out of the bushings now, they'll be ok until the end of the season?

I want to do all the work myself, so I'm hoping to do it over the winter.

[JoeT]

If the bushings are OEM, they will clunk again eventually, they are essentially worn out. But since they are ONLY swaybar bushings, they won't cause any other peripheral damage to any other part. Its only annoying because of the sound it makes.

You can even leave it that way until the end of the season, it won't affect a thing. It doesn't even reduce swaybar efficiency.

No worries.

[miatagirl77]

Let's hope it's just the sway bar bushings then!!

Thanks JoeT :-)

[Cavemanrjc]

measure the bar and go to a speed shop and get a set of 30 buck bushing made of poly
you have to take it apart to lube them might as well change them, Replacement bushings tend to be cheep
most full car kits are under 300 bucks
and that dose all bushings in the car.
sway bar bushings are relatively generic in design
so you will need the bar diameter as well as the hole spacing for the bracket , cheaper then oe normally

[miatagirl77]

I can get Redline CV-2 grease with moly. It's a silicone based grease. Will that work?

[JoeT]

Yup.

Any grease will work for a period of time. The real problem is that the bushings have gotten out of round and worn out. There's now a gap between the bar and the bushing where there should be zero gap. The grease will help quiet it down until it gets squeezed out.

The reason I recommended regular CV grease is to allow the rubber to get soft and expand slightly, at the expense of longevity, they are worn out anyway so longevity doesn't matter.

The real fix is to get new bushings. Go to JRP and order stock sized "Energy Suspension" or whatever brand they carry urethane bushings and call it a day.

Note: Though urethane will not wear out as fast as the rubber bushings, they will creak when the lube runs out, and you'll need to lube them on occasion.

The cost on bushings are not that much, it's worth changing while you're under the car.

Hope this helps.

[miatagirl77]

I called JRP already and they don't have stock sized bushings for the Miata. Not my year anyway.

So I'm trying to find out what size they are and get universal ones.

Or I'm also considering getting a complete bushing kit and replacing the sway bar ones now and doing the rest over the winter.

Figured, for now, the grease will stop the clunk until I can source and replace the bushings.