Help Me Diagnose this Clunk

Sky Render

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Welp, I'm pretty sure it's the strut mount (or the strut itself). I confirmed this with my Chassis Ear.

Basically, it has an inductive "microphone" that is a clamp. You clamp it onto a piece of metal, and if that piece is making noise, you hear it through the attached headphone. But if the noise comes from someplace nearby, you don't hear it. To verify how it works, I put the clamp on the very top of the strut (around the Koni's adjustment knob, to be precise). I then gently whacked the knob with a plastic-face hammer, making noise in my headphones. Whacking the nearby strut tower itself made no noise.

After running the wire up the top of the hood and through a slightly-opened passenger window, I drove around the block, hitting every manhole I could find.

"Clunk clunk" went the headphones.

So the noise is definitely coming from the strut. I'm guessing the stock GT isolator failed, or the bearing in the CC plate.

I was really hoping I'd get out of this for only $160 in new end links. :whymewhyme:
 

AnotherS197GT

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Welp, I'm pretty sure it's the strut mount (or the strut itself). I confirmed this with my Chassis Ear.

Basically, it has an inductive "microphone" that is a clamp. You clamp it onto a piece of metal, and if that piece is making noise, you hear it through the attached headphone. But if the noise comes from someplace nearby, you don't hear it. To verify how it works, I put the clamp on the very top of the strut (around the Koni's adjustment knob, to be precise). I then gently whacked the knob with a plastic-face hammer, making noise in my headphones. Whacking the nearby strut tower itself made no noise.

After running the wire up the top of the hood and through a slightly-opened passenger window, I drove around the block, hitting every manhole I could find.

"Clunk clunk" went the headphones.

So the noise is definitely coming from the strut. I'm guessing the stock GT isolator failed, or the bearing in the CC plate.

I was really hoping I'd get out of this for only $160 in new end links. :whymewhyme:

I would just take a shotgun approach to this problem now. Take the Konis off and send them in for warranty work (or contact Koni and ask for advance warranty replacement). Then call MM and see if they offer the option to rebuild their plates and send them in for that. If you aren't running the 05-10 style struts, I'd see if you can swap over to that style. Less issue with mounts and all that stuff.
 

Sky Render

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I actually am running the '05-10 struts with MM's spacers to run them with the '11-14 plates and mounts..

I'm probably going to switch to Vorshlag's completely assembled Bilstein setup. I might rebuild the Konis and put them on the shelf afterwards.
 

oldVOR

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You won't go wrong with the Vorshlag gear.
I have their Bilstein/CC plate setup and it's top notch gear.
You'll appreciate the easy of camber adjustment over the many other CC plate designs.
 

86GT351

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Since I eliminated the sway bar as a problem, I'm left with two possible sources of the noise, right?
  • Strut assembly
  • Lower control arm assembly
Tonight, I figure I'll put my Chassis Ear on the top of the strut tower and listen on the head phones while I drive over some bumps. If the noise is loud, then the problem is in the strut assembly. If it's not loud, the source of the noise is the LCA.

Does that sound like a good plan?


I see the age of the car in your signature. How many miles? I ask because it could possible be the Strut itself breaking down internally.
 

86GT351

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Welp, I'm pretty sure it's the strut mount (or the strut itself). I confirmed this with my Chassis Ear.

Basically, it has an inductive "microphone" that is a clamp. You clamp it onto a piece of metal, and if that piece is making noise, you hear it through the attached headphone. But if the noise comes from someplace nearby, you don't hear it. To verify how it works, I put the clamp on the very top of the strut (around the Koni's adjustment knob, to be precise). I then gently whacked the knob with a plastic-face hammer, making noise in my headphones. Whacking the nearby strut tower itself made no noise.

After running the wire up the top of the hood and through a slightly-opened passenger window, I drove around the block, hitting every manhole I could find.

"Clunk clunk" went the headphones.

So the noise is definitely coming from the strut. I'm guessing the stock GT isolator failed, or the bearing in the CC plate.

I was really hoping I'd get out of this for only $160 in new end links. :whymewhyme:


Upgrade time! Good and bad thing.
 

Sky Render

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I see the age of the car in your signature. How many miles? I ask because it could possible be the Strut itself breaking down internally.

60k on the car; 50k on the struts. And they've seen a lot of autocross and track days.
 

Sky Render

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For future reference of anyone checking back with this thread, the issue turned out to be a sway bar bushing that went oval. The bar was physically clunking around inside the bushing saddle.
 

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