Rep Power: 0

For many years now I am having a clunk in the left suspension . The car is at 85k miles now. When it started it was very faint and hard to pin point . What I do know is that it needs the compression of the car over bumps or in sharp dips of the road for it to sound. Just driving over little bums here and there does not produce the sound and my limited experience "might" rule out things like tie rod ends , ball joints , stabilizer bars ( I just renewed the links and bushings , so it is not that). Fast forward now to the present ...and the sound is much louder and is definitely coming from the left ( drivers side). Whereas it was difficult ( somewhat) to simulate the clunk I can do so readily now by ( slowly driving) aggressively steering to the right momentarily ( not a continuous turn). This is on a smooth surface. Steering aggressively , like a jolt , to the right then center, then aggressively to the right...you get the picture. I am strongly suspecting the strut. But which part? The bump stop? Shock absorber? , would tightening the center bolt help? The spring not seated properly?
I have not done any strut repairs on the car to date . When it had 25 k miles the axles were changed under warranty.
Any forum member here with a similar issue?
Thanks in advance for your reply
Paul

 
Rep Power: 518

Check the swaybar links.

 
Rep Power: 0

I replaced the sway bar links with new OEM as well as the bushings. I don"t think its that as I am still getting the clunk

 
Rep Power: 0

Solved!!! No more clunking!!
So after many years of dealing with this clunk that got progressively worse I decided to remove the strut to check it out. When I removed the spring and rubber boot I noticed that the bump stop was torn up so I went to Napa and got a kit. I had previously looked online at Majestic Honda and there were two different ones listed. A quick call revealed that it depended where the car was made , Japan or USA. The Japanese one was 14 bucks and the other 28ish , If I remember correctly. The local Honda dealer wanted 42 bucks so I opted for Napas. It did not take much effort using a spanner to remove the two large nuts and bolts that secure the strut and knuckle? together. Those were supposed to be torqued to 116 ft/lbs. I thought that strange. I took the time to dismantle the bearing and added more greased to it. I saw a video on youtube that showed the plate where the top of the shock is attached to and the hole in that video was elongated like a race track pattern and the complaint was a rattling sound over bumps. Mine was perfectly round. I compared the two bump stops side by side and realized that the aftermarket one was about 5/16 of an inch shorter. Not sure if it would have mattered so what I did was inserted the old one back in and cut off a bit leaving the difference. I then installed the aftermarket one. I buttoned everything back up, torqued the two big bolts and nut to 116ft/lbs and the three strut bolts to 32ft/lbs. Did a test drive and no more clunk!