Scenario: you have a front clunk. You can't track it down. You take it to the mechanic. They can't track it down either.

In the interest of spending as little money as you have to, and given that some problems are more common than others, what do you replace first?

 

Start with the most simple thing. Make sure the nuts for eccentric bolts on the lower control arm are tight. Seriously, I just had this issue where I had a loud clunk every time I turned the wheel at or close to lock or went over a bump. Then when I straightened the wheel and hit the brakes it would clunk again. Turned out the shop who did my alignment left the passenger side nut for the eccentric adjustment bolt loose. Took almost 1 1/2 turns to get it to torque spec (127lb-ft). After that it's dead quiet now.

 

I tightened those bolts, and I do plan on taking it in for an alignment, but when I read so many posts regarding people having done x y and z and still without improvement it's a bit disheartening. My car developed a clunk recently after going on a rough road and then having to brake very hard to not collide with a reckless driver. The mechanic found that the driver's side strut mount was a bit loose, and this might have helped tighten things up a little, but I've got a clunk and no discernible way to track it down.

 

I would be curious what kind of answers you get. I'm going through similar frustrations, as I'm hearing some clicking and clunking when driving, as well some weird clunking when turning the wheel all the way to the left or right. The same shop has looked at it twice and cannot find anything wrong the front suspension components.

 

Upper control arms. The bushings are prone to separating in higher mileage cars but they look fine on visual inspection. You have to remove the arms to check the bushings.

 

You can also do the 9-3 test by moving the wheel with your hands and see if there is play. My UCA ball joint was fine but my bushings were making noise on rough pavement, by moving the wheel it helped to pinpoint it

 

Having replaced my entire front suspension little by little, I would have started with the lower control arms and ball joint first. Of course, if the tie rod boots are torn and letting in debris, start there.

Tie rod job was very difficult. I bought the special tie rod tool and a very long extension to allow me to pull outside the fender well. I’d also recommend using a 1/2 drive extension because I really had to put all my strength into it. I replaced inner and outer tie rod and the boot. Mine were torn to hell.

Note on the control arm. I bought mine from rockauto. The bolt and castle nut are not exactly the same. I felt more secure putting the old castle but back on as the new one was useless. (The pin didn’t even go through the castle nut slots. I believe the brand I got was Mevotech. I can check into that.

The upper control arm is a very easy job. It requires you have a ball joint separator tool. For me, lower control arm and upper control arm fixed the clunk. The other parts significantly improved ride quality.

Good luck!

edit: Moog ball joints. I would not recommend these. They work but I felt like a better quality/fit would be worth the investment.


Upper control arm. Previous owner/shop over torqued and stuck. Tried lubricant and heat. Nothing worked. I had to cut it off with a cutting wheel. Use tight fitting and good quality tools and always torque to proper specs.

Rear driver side upper control arm.

Driver side front Upper control arm. Complete deterioration of rubber.

Driver side upper control arm castle bolt/nut.

Specs for 2004 Lexus LS430.

 

Coming back to this thread in case someone is still chasing noises in the front suspension. For context, my vehicle is a 2006 with ~151,000 miles.

As mentioned in my previous post, I took the vehicle to an independent shop to listen and check for noises on two separate occasions. They could not find anything wrong, even mentioning that all bolts in the suspension components were tight and there was not any excessive wear on any of the bushings. This was quite frustrating, as the noise was annoying and embarrassing, as I use the vehicle to visit clients.

At this point, I was ready to start buying all new suspension components, starting with the lower control arms with the pressed in ball joint. I called another independent shop to get a quote on the replacement of all new components. They mentioned that I should have them look at it first before spending all the money on new suspension components.

I brought the car in to the second independent shop, took the tech on a test drive where they could hear the noises. We went over dips, made u-turns, etc. I left the car with the shop and they mentioned they will get it on the rack, put the vehicle on the alignment rack, and go through everything with a fine tooth comb.

Their findings were surprising: both the subframe bolts and lower control arm bolts were loose and causing the noise. They tightened the bolts and the noise completely went away. This was one week ago and I have driven a couple hundred miles and the noise has not returned.

I will add that they did find some tearing on both ball joints, but nothing that needed to be addressed right away. Additionally, the front shocks were leaking and soft. Again, nothing that had to be addressed. Not bad for a 16 year old vehicle.

 

Wait, which ones are the subframe bolts?

 

The technician did not indicate the location of the subframe bolts that were tightened.

 

The mechanic.