I just developed a clunking noise from the front passenger side while turning left. The thumping/clunk does not occur when turning right or going straight. Its over straight road and happens regardless of whether i'm on the gas or not. It is unrelated to bumps in the road. It is very prevalent while taking a left turn around 15-20 mph. The car handles pretty normally, drives straight and doesnt bounce so i'm unsure what it is.

If anyone has any insight for me before I take it into the dealer that would be helpful.


Thanks

 

any vibrations when turning? If so it could be a wheel bearing.

 

it doesnt feel like there's any vibrations... The sound actually is variable Sometimes its very audible and sometimes its not...a wheel bearing being bad would be a constant noise as long as I do the same mph and the same turn right?

 

It may have something to do with the strut(s) depending on load when you are turning, hence it does not make the noise all the time. How many miles on the vehicle?

 

Sway bar bushing or blown strut?

 

I had EXACT same symptom
For my car we found the plastic piece of the top left strut was uneven. Meaning that the plastic piece on the top of the spring was facing down when it should have been facing up(Not upside down but more left vs. right) I ended up getting the blistens but it was the EXACT same when it was installed the same way. Once we turned the plastic piece, it is quiet as hell now.

That's my case. I looked at EVERYTHING with credible mechanics about all other suggestions. (Bushings, sway bar...i have after market as well, endlinks....etc)

Hope this helps

 

Thanks for the replies. I took it to the dealer and the tech said the best he could tell me was that he was 80% sure it was the sway bar endlinks. Could you go into a little more detail about the plastic peice? Are you saying it just went crooked somehow while stock and just needed some adjustment? How easy is it to turn it?

 

It's hard to explain in words. The strut has a plastic cover right above the spring(Spring stopper? Not sure how to call that) and that piece have shifted with my 15k miles of driving. All we did - turn the plastic circular piece 180 degree (In circular motion) and the noise went away.
I suggest to pull both front struts out and compare to make sure everything is exactly the same from little details. If your left turn is making noise, make sure that left strut is installed the same exact way that right is installed. Those minor things we overlooked was really an issue for us. I can't say that is your issue but I do suggest that it can be as simple as my case. (And yes it took me like 3 weeks to figure outIf you have aftermarket parts it is more likely similar issue. I have springs and sways and strut bars, front and back)

FYI my noise had gotten worse with some time and more driving time. IE the morning when I first drive the car it is ok, but after 30 min of drive I can really hear them. Also it was very evident when I was pulling into parking and such. It came to a point where I could feel the clunk on my foot, around the dead pedal.

Hope this helps

 

I am having the same trouble. Only turning left at slower speeds. I can feel the clunking in the dead peddle as well. Dealer checked everything out. Just had an allignment done too. Dealer thinks it's a bad strut. I thought it was a CV joint but it is not a ticking noise, it's a clunking noise. Funny thing is the noise has come and gone on it's own a couple of times. Right when I get geared up to find the problem it goes away? Fricken thing Not sure why it would come and go like that???

 

jack the front of your car up (driver and passanger side) and put on jackstands. take the driver side wheel off and try to push or pull the front swaybar. if there is movement in the swaybar then you will need new endlinks. i had the same clunking as you describe, changed out my endlinks for whiteline endlinks ( old endlinks allowed the swaybar to touch the subrame) and still had the clunk. it wasnt untill i bought new front shocks did i finally fix the clunk problem

 

I have the same problem but my noise happens when I go over small bumps. It is only coming from the passenger side and does go away sometimes. It makes the noise when I turn right regardless if there is a bump or not. Do you think it is my sway bar hitting the sub frame?? I did jack up the car on the passenger side and tried to giggle things around myself but I didnt find anything. Any good sites for upgraded end links? Easy change??

 

I am familiar with this problem on Mcpherson strut style cars. I had this same occurance on my RSX - which is why i have not lowered my EVO- what ended the problem for me in my RSX was that i have to basically overtorque the bolts that held the lower arm to the chassis. This did lead to premature wear of my bushings, but at that point, i sold that torque -less monster to nissan for 3k less than i bought it for w/ 23k miles on it.

Gotta say i loved Acuras resale value.

 

it could also be your shocks too, forgot to add that one. Sometimes shocks will make noise going over rough spots in the road, this is a good indication that, that shock or shocks are toast.

 

I doubt very much the noise is swaybar endlinks. My car has 100,000km and the swaybar endlinks are still perfect, so even with heavy use they are reliable. I too have had the clunking, and today I am installing new bushes in the front lower control arms. The rear main bush on this control arm is a pillowball, and they are not the most long wearing of items. New they were cheap (AUD$85 each, US$ = 1:1 with Australia at this time), so I am doing them today. Same time new front bushes as well but in urethane are going in.

I did find one of my clunks was the swaybar to crossmember D-shaped bush. If you want to check that, just disconnect one of your endlinks and try to wiggle the swaybar up and down as fast as you can by hand. You will feel some clunking if that is the problem. Mine did. New bushes and clunk gone, but they are a complete pain to get to.

The front lower control arm rear bush we found by unbolting the front bush and then trying to move the control arm around by hand. Clunked pretty badly and could see the rear bush doing almost nothing. That is why today they are being replaced.

I will report back tomorrow on whether it fixes the problem.

 

I had this same problem until it magicly went away. I'm ok with that

I'm going to upgrade to Bilstein HD's soon anyway so hopfully that'll fix it for good.