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Car is a 1994 Aucura Legend L Sedan AT.
Posted this at acura-legend.com as well, but would like your help, too. I was originally reading through threads about font end vibration at highs speeds (specific to second generation Legends) and gathered that there are several potential culprits (and several threads on the matter). However, just recently my vehicle has starting making a loud single clunking noise from the right font when going over speeds bumps or other larger bumps in the road. When this occurs at higher speeds it does not seem to jerk to one side. There is no pulling when braking.
For starters, tires are new and alignment has been done recently, as well as all fluids serviced apart from differential fluid. Do you feel the two problems I am having are related? If so, what should I investigate first? If not, where do you think the clunking is coming from?
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These kinds of things are very hard to diagnose over the internet, however . . .
I would investigate the clunking first. Often, front end clunking over bumps is ball joints. I would give the ball joints a good inspection, paying special attention to the upper, as I find that they tend to wear out quickly.
Other things that can cause noise from the front end include wheel bearings, control arm bushings, strut mounts, and tie rod ends.
A good once over of the front end would help. If you aren’t able to spot the problem, most chain tire places, like Sears, will do a front end inspection for free, and tell you what is wrong with it 🙂
Here is the best way to solve your problem.
1) Watch this video and pay close attention to what Eric says.
Make sure you check all of the components that he mentions. When you find anything out of order. Replace it. Eric has taught us that learning is on going and that we can continue to improve. Equally he stresses the process. How to find the problem ? All based on a pragmatic approach. Check components one at a time and move on to the next. It makes solving problems much easier.
For instance, check your tie rods if they are ok move on to your ball joints and so on and so forth. The process of elimination is crucial and effective when tied in with effective organization.
I appreciate everyone’s replies. Thank you for referencing the videos and FAQ. Somehow I totally brainfarted on the FAQ, which I have used for other issues. As Eric has said, and drthrift035, being methodical and patient in evaluation can save money in the long run. I know what I’m doing this weekend..
Glad to see that you are on the right track. Just stay focused on what you have to do and it will get done.
Just a quick update. I decided to take advantaged of Discount Tire’s free balancing just as a starting point, and despite having new tires placed and balanced a few weeks ago, every tire was at least 1 ounce off. Maybe their machine was having issues the day I had the new tires put on (or someone didn’t know what they were doing)? Anyway, the vibration is almost entirely gone now, so I’m happy about that.
The clunking has worsened and seems to be coming from both sides now. It sounds like the car is bottoming out if I go over a speed bump at anything but a creep (I know Legends are notoriously low, but this is a definite change). After a good visual inspection and poking around, I think both front lower ball joints are bad. After I jacked the car up, trying to lift up the tires on my own didn’t do much, but with a pry bar placed under the tire there was noticeable play in both lower ball joints. I also noticed my right outer CV joint boot is torn (surprisingly I don’t have the typical knocking noise), as well as the left tie rod boot (which is now full of grime).
I may have found a solution to the clunking. I’ll report back once I replace everything. Thanks for everyone’s help.
Okay, I need some additional help. As I mentioned in my last post, I was able to appreciate some vertical play in both front wheels when jacked up and felt I had bad front lower ball joints on both sides. For my first round of repairs I replaced those as well as the right front axle (the boot was torn). This seemed to solve the clunking from the right front end, but I still had clunking from the left front.
Flash forward a few weeks. The noise worsened, so I jacked the car up and poked around some more, this time noticing some play when rocking the wheel in the horizontal direction. Since I had noticed the torn inner tie rod dust cover and torn outer tie rod boots on both sides, I decided to replace the inner and outer tie rods on both sides. When I had the left inner tie rod dust cover off, there appeared to be a combination of water, grease, and dirt inside. I also thought I saw a small amount of power steering fluid. Uh oh. (Interestingly enough, a service record from 2007 mentioned a leaking steering rack, which the prior owner declined to replace at that time.) Once I had everything back together the suspension felt good. No more clunking. (Got an alignment, too.)
Flash forward another few weeks to the present. The clunking over bumps has returned again and is worse than ever. It’s coming from both sides, and the size of the depression or elevation in the road can be pretty small and still produce the noise. The steering remains tight with no play, but sometimes over bumps in the road it seems to rattle the wheel pretty hard and almost feels like a vibration for a few beats.
I’m really having trouble pinpointing this. There is no obvious leaking from the front shocks, and when I try to vertically rock the vehicle the oscillations dampen pretty quickly. No broken springs. I cannot seem to recreate the sound by manually shaking things or hammering on control arms, bushings, etc. No visibly loose retaining bolts, fasteners, etc. Upper control arms seem okay (no torn boots in the upper ball joints), although I’m not sure of a good way to test these. Strut mounts also seem tight (thought of this one after watching Eric’s strut mount replacement on the RL). I did remove the steering rack splash shield and check the mounts for the steering rack, which all seemed fine as well.
I have pretty good service records from the vehicle, but there is a gap of a few years missing, so I don’t know if shocks were replaced during that time. They may be original (odometer is about 194500); they are OEM. Could this be the sole cause? Could a bad steering rack cause these symptoms? The steering itself seems nice and smooth despite the leak. What puzzles me is how things seemed to temporarily improve after I replaced the parts I felt were bad based on my analysis. Any help would be appreciated.
Edit: The noise 101 video was an engine mount on a TL. Can mounts cause clunking on bumps without occurring when hard acceleration?
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