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These last weeks I've been having somekind of a clunk coming through the frame of the car... it might be coming from the driver's rear But it's so difficult to pinpoint that it might even be from the front! It's loud enough that my GF independently noticed it... and it can definitely be felt as well as being heard.

I can't easily reproduce the sound and it's not heard often. I may get this a couple of times in 10 minutes of driving. Has any of you ever had that kind of problem?

I also get a vibration when on the highway, but it might not be related... maybe a counterweight has fallen off one of the wheels.

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Anybody???

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Not enough info...

What kind of noise? rattling, metal, spring kind... etc

 

How about pin pointing when it happens IE. turning? speed? braking?

I get a clunk on my first turn every morning or anytime my car sits for a while.
I think it's the saway bar bushing.

 

How is it that we always have the same issues!!?! Must be the red cars, friend.

I've got the noise too. Sounds like it's coming from my passenger-side rear. Like a clunk/pop kinda noise whenever it's coming to a stop or accelerating off of a stop. It isn't the brakes, I had them checked out. There was an older post a while back that pointed the finger at the control arm bushings, saying they were the culprit. It will get worse. I'm taking mine back in soon to have them check the entire rear suspension....the sound is DRIVING ME INSANE!!!!

But...it is good to see we're in the same predicament...kinda

Let me know if you find anything out!! I'll let you know if and when I find anything out.

 

anything rolling about in the trunk?

 

Possibly a bad rear strut? I would think either than or a bad bushing.

 

I don't know man, maybe we got two RAs from the same batch or something! (BTW: they never found what the noise was from the dashboard...)

It gets funnier when you think that I just received my Magnaflow muffler tip from Zap... ...yep, I finally ordered in. Funny story too... but I can't discuss it on the forum though.


Anyway, back to my clunking noise problem: I didn't want to influence your answers guys... but if I had to bet I'd say it's a tie-rod, control arm kinda problem. I mean, you know like if a ball joint had a bad bushing and kept shifting and knocking on it's mount. Now, I hope this kinda thing is easy to spot... but now that Deltarider says they didn't find what it was the first time, I'm getting a bit depressed here...

I have an opportunity about once a month to get my car to the dealer... so if they don't fix it thursday, I might be stuck with the problem when we go on vacation at the end of the month... and that I don't look forward to. It's not like it's a big thing at first, but it really gets on your nerves after a while.

Oh, and no I don't hear it only when it's cold. It almost always happens when the weight of the chassis is being shifted, often from front to end and vice versa (accelerating, braking)...

But hey, at least I know I'm not the only one having to deal with this! I sure hope they quickly find the problem and fix it so I can get the pleasure of driving my RA back... and can post about the solution here.

As always, thanks for your help guys!

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EXACTLY! It is only when this happens, when I hear the noise too. BTW...they only looked at the brakes, I'm not sure they checked the suspension components. I will get to the bottom of this.

 

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Yeah, I'd advise you do that... preferably before the car get it's own bottom dragging down the road!

Seriously, I mean, it's even a bit worrying... I had the children in the car yesterday and I began thinking "hey, maybe I should drive a bit more carefully... what if this suspension part suddenly drops to the ground and I go off the road!". Well, okay... I dropped the children off and then drove like I always do... ... but you know what I mean. It's not like the dash noise... that clunk can be felt through the chassis for Pete's sake! Nothing to make you feel relaxed...

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since they changed some parts of my suspension a couple weeks ago (calcium got stuck in there and was making a "sqwuiky" sound), I can hear a clunking noise when I hit any kind of bumps, mostly at low-medium speed. Ive got an appointment tomorrow morning at my dealer in Granby, I'll keep you informed, perhaps its something related.

 

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Oh, so road salt and/or dirt may have gotten into one of the bushings and damaged it! Now were getting somewhere!

Anyway, mine is at the dealer right now... I'll keep you guys posted on what they (or didn't ) find.

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Well guys, here is the official dealer's diagnostic:

The front driver's side coil spring has to be replaced. The technician says it's only the second time he's heard of that problem, but that it's a documented problem. Bear in mind this is only the local technician though, so he can't possibly know about all North-American occurences of this same problem.

The metal alloy of the spring can have weaker-than-normal strenght and can deform under stress.

I personnaly advise that you get your car to the dealer as soon as your hear any sound that might resemble what I described earlier in the thread. Failure of a coil spring could potentially be dangerous...

I'll keep you posted when the part is changed and in what condition the deffective part is in. I might even be lucky enough to grab a pic of it... but I assume they may not want this to be too widely documented for now.

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Mine would clunck when going over bumps at a slow speed but it has stopped doing it. *shrug*

 

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The technician told me he knows of two problems with the RA suspension right now:

1- the collapsed coil springs in the front

2- bushing wear on the rear suspension


IMO, either one of these problems should be addressed as soon as possible... and even if (like Lightfighter) you stopped hearing the noise, it doesn't necessarily mean you are not affected by the problem.

Now, the technician assured me it wasn't a big deal and wasn't a risk to your safety. But my take on this is as follow: if a part of what's keeping the car level or just plain and simply on the road is damaged, I wouldn't take any chance and have it checked out anyway.

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