annoying clunk coming from the rear of the car

[bakes]

Hi all,

I mentioned in a previous thread that I've been suffering from a pretty consistent clunking/rattle coming from the rear underside of my car.

I drive on some fairly uneven country roads and this makes the rattle all the more annoying (just knowing it's there is annoying).

This past weekend I swapped out my summers wheels/tires to my winter set and took some pics. I'm not sure what to look for. In my other thread someone mentioned shocks but I don't think that's it as it's not from one side or the other. Could it be the sway bar? Headshot replaced the lower rear part of my bumper with a custom piece that simulates some what of a diffuser look so I'm not sure if something is loose underneath it.

Here are the pics. I know it's pretty dirty under there but that is just a symptom of the roads I drive on daily and there's not much I can do.

[Bigglezworth]

Tough item to diagnose on a forum. I have had a clunk occur before after swapping out a sway bar and it was relatively easy to diagnose as you had to be turning a corner and changing grade at the same time which introduced torsion on the bar. If the clunk is occurring while driving straight under normal load, I'd start looking at the basics first by ensuring all bolts are tight for struts, sways, and control arms. You should also take a long pry bar and apply force at all bushings to check for play. The is of course presuming that you don't have a bad damper that has lost it's compression.

[hahnmgh63]

Start with what he said, whats's the total mileage?) looks like Hotchkis bars but the bushings are looking pretty worn. Try doing one pump of grease in the fittings (never over grease) and then take it for a short ride. If no change then I would lean more towards the rest of the bushings. Not a slam but N.E. cars do show more wear in the rubber because of the salt. You can quickly tell a car that is driven on salty roads from the pics compared to a West coast or Southern car. And yes, even the bushings are affected by the salt, going from extremes of Acidic wetness to Alkaline affects the rubber more.

[bakes]

Turn's out it was the bushings from the Hotchkis bars. I finally managed to take it to my local shop and they said the bushings are so worn there is enough gap for them to rattle. The temporarily wrapped the bar in some tape to increase the diameter and reused the old bushings and the rattle has gone. Now to order a new bushings set from Hotchkis and resolve this once and for all!

From a quick search the only place to get the replacement bushings is from the Hotchkis website themselves. I hope they ship to Canada!

[EINHORN]

trunk monkey?

http://www.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3...09910813,d.cGc

[Bigglezworth]

Like Dave always says, winner, winner, chicken dinner...

[LaserSVT]

I would bet you could get some Energy Suspension ones from Autozone or Summit or Oreillys. I have the same bar and noticed the same rattle. I dont have mine on the tighter setting like you do though. Was thinking of trying it in hopes it allows the rear to rotate easier. But if you are driving in snow (as the rust suggests) I would try the sway bar at the looser setting. Nothing to do with the noise mind you, just might make adverse weather driving better.