Rear Driver Side Popping/Clunking Noise

[Swarzkopf]

Thought I'd throw this up here for some brainstorming since I can't work on my car right now- had surgery a little bit ago and still have restrictions. I did try searching and found the usual rear end clunking noise threads, but this is a bit different.

Saturday night I laid into the throttle real hard from a low speed roll. Ran it up to a decent clip, let off, and turned off the highway. On my turn, I heard a weird popping sound coming from the rear driver side of the car. This popping noise sounds like it's coming from the wheel area, though it's tough to tell for sure. It occurs anytime I turn left.

Also at the same time, the typical rear end clunking these cars have sometimes got a LOT worse. From probably the same area, the car makes serious banging/clunking noises when going over bumps now. I limped the car home (it still drives fine) and it's hibernating in the garage until I'm cleared to work on it.

When I heard the popping, my first though was that it was the spider gears in the differential...but I'm not so sure now.

I hope it's not the differential. Any thoughts? Possible LCA or rear sway bar issue? Feedback is appreciated.

 

[Seer]

Popping from the left... perhaps a LCA bushing? Also when going over bumps?

 

[Swarzkopf]

Yep, it is making noise when going over bumps, though it's honestly more of a "clunk" when going over bumps, and more of a series of "pops" when turning left.

I'd be real happy with it being an LCA bushing.

 

[Swarzkopf]

Any other thoughts? LCA bushing seem like a likely culprit?

 

[J2L06GT]

Check you shock mounts, tops in trunk,
they make alot of noise when loose.

 

[Swarzkopf]

Will do, thank you.

 

[Sharad]

I agree with the LCA bushings assessment. What kind of arms are on the car?

If it was the spider gears, I'd expect it to pop in a slow parking lot turn with no accelerating or decelerating.

 

[NickJones07GT]

Another thought is to check the sway bar mounting hardware. They tend to be the culprit when I have a random clunking sound.

 

[skwerl]

Besides the obvious (lca, panhard, shock mount, sway bar, etc), I'll throw another suggestion into the ring. I've developed a bit of a clunk as well when going over bumps. Most noticeable on very small bumps such as thick painted stripes across the road. Turns out there's a baffle broken loose in my muffler which bounces around and clunks. I found it by shaking/slapping the bottom of the muffler. My car only has 26K miles so it pissed me off, but I found a set of take-off Bullitt mufflers on another forum which will be here Monday.

 

[Swarzkopf]

Problem #1 found- I was running the old style adjustable Steeda LCAs- the locking nut had backed off on both sides of both LCAs and the damn things were literally turning/moving! Yikes. I guess that's why the former owner used red lok-tite on them...I used blue and thought it'd be good, nope.

Replaced them with some solid BMR pieces.

Still going to change the differential fluid while the car is up in the air- just to make sure there aren't pieces of metal in it.

 

[BMR Tech]

Replaced them with some solid BMR pieces.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Reallystockstang]

I found a neat trick is to use soft rubber malet with car on ground tap the components until you hear an audible clunk. Mine was the sway bar bushings in the middle.

 

[Iceman62]

Great tip, but I'm sure they figured this out...9+ years ago (zombie thread).

 

[DieHarder]

In my case (due to the hardware I use) it's usually the sway bar links at the top where the arms connect to the body. There's a fine line of too loose/too tight. Too loose, it clunks over bumps. Too tight the link cannot articulate smoothly through its range of motion and the rear end feels stiff. Getting it right takes a little experimentation. That means every so often I have to readjust to keep it quiet. The clunking is due to the size of the bolt and bolt hole. Can't seem to find the right combination/size of bolt/metal sleeve to fit snugly in that hole without some play. That play in turn becomes a clunk if I don't have it tight enough when the car goes over a bump. Tried adding washers to tighten up the link. Only works for so long. Wish I could find some stepped washers or a metal sleeve/bolt combination that would allow full movement without moving in the hole. Probably have to take some measurements and fab something up.