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Since it is happening when you go over speed bumps can you open the hood and then you or you and a friend can push up and down on side of car you suspect. Then maybe you can narrow it down a bit better. You then may want to lift front tires off ground and put car up on jack stands for support and check if it could be ball joint. Grab top and bottom of tire and try to move top out while pushing buttom in then alternate in out in out to see if there is any play in that part of suspension. You may then want to get under and see if any suspension parts seem to be loose. I would do that before pulling the struts out, may be something else. Good luck and be safe.
Thanks Tri9ss. I should have mentioned that in my original post. I’ve had the car up on jack stands and checked all the suspension parts, they are all good. There is no play what so ever when I wiggle the wheel in any dirction – its like new. Car tracks straight and true down the highway with no play in the steering wheel.
Have you tried pushing up and down on the car while on the ground to see if you can make it make that sound? Did you happen to check the bump stops just in case?
Yes, I’ve tried pushing up and down but can’t make it happen. I can’t make the strut compress and uncompress fast enough. If I go over the speed bumps very very slowly there is no noise, but at faster speeds I get the noise. don’t get me wrong, I don’t drive over speed bumps at speed, I do slow down.
when you changed the struts was there a rubber isolater that went between the top of the strut and the strut housing, the part of the vehicle you bolt it to. Here is a shot in the dark, could you have a loose exhaust system , control arm bushing that is bad. do you have good dampening from the struts, since you say you can push it up and down fairly easy, could struts be going bad again? I have heard of others thinking it could be bad motor mounts, I think that one might be reaching but who knows, keep us posted and maybe tomorrow you will get a few more suggestions, take it easy.
Quoted From Tri9SS:
when you changed the struts was there a rubber isolater that went between the top of the strut and the strut housing, the part of the vehicle you bolt it to.
No, once assembled the strut was installed up in the mounting position – metal on metal so to speak. There wasn’t anything there when I took out the original struts.
The exaust is fine, I went through the underside of the car looking for loose parts, and the bushings are fine (I changed the sway bar bushings on spec).
Missing spring isolators could be a possible cause for the noise your hearing.
Did this ‘clunking’ noise you hear start after you serviced the front struts? And why did you replace the struts in the first place?
Did you check your suspension components with a pry bar? I worked on a Toyota Tundra that had ‘clunking’ noises. It turns out the control arm bushings and eccentric bolts were bad once we got it on a lift. Plus the alignment when driving the truck was questionable.
You might want to check for that looseness you suspect by looking at the top retaining nut on the strut while you bounce the front end with the truck on the ground, if you see it move tighten it and see if the noise is still there. Those struts actually had issues with upper strut mounts and if the bearings came out during your swap this would also be suspect. Good luck.
Ok, I have pulled the strut and have new bearings and upper strut mount. The problem I am running into is how to orientate the upper spring seat when I put the strut assembly back together. As you can see, the spring seat and the surface for the bearings/upper strut mount are not in the same plane. I have looked online for instructions on how to orientate this but have come up short, and my service manual doesn’t explain it either. Is I need the car I am going to put it back together with my best guess after looking at the frame, but would appreciate some guidance on this one.
Thanks,
Pete
Are you looking at it like it is vertical because your strut i believe is at an angle and the strut tower is at a slight different angle so the difference is to compensate, Is there a indentation where the spring should sit against like where the spring sits against at bottom of strut, can not tell from side view.
I figured it out I think. I installed the upper spring seat without the spring, holding it against the upper mount with my hand. Then I rotated the upper seat till the upper and lower seats were in the same plane, and then I noticed that the lower seat has a whole in it as well, right at the spot where the strut bolts to the knuckle. The two holes were pretty much lined up so I am assuming that when you assemble the strut you line up those two holes, because once you take the spring compressors off that upper seat isn’t moving.
Anyway, put it all together and the noise is still there, no change, so it wasn’t the upper mount after all. I’m stumped, but the good thing is it isn’t a safety issue, just an annoying sound. I’ll find it sooner or later.
Pete
Are you sure you checked the stabilizer links? The most common cause of noise is those upper mounts but you might also want to check the rest of the suspension as well as the fasteners that hold the front lower frame to the body, make sure they are all tight. It might be time for a chassis ear to see if you can nail down the origin of where the noise is coming from.
Most common on this year range is the stabilizer bar/sway bar endlinks, but i see you already handled this. I would check the engine and transmission mounts, specifically the lower transmission mount that I believe is by the passenger wheel, and the engine torque mount by the driver wheel. A friend of mine had a CR-V a few years older than your Pilot with similar symptoms, and it turned out the passenger trans mount was completely rotted out. A few bucks on RockAuto and not even an hour of work and the noise was gone.
I will check the the sub frame bolts, and everything else that I can. I have already changed the stabilizer links, and sway bar bushings. I changed the front engine mount (between enging block and radiator) as well as the side engine mount (just under the power steering pump). I did a cursory look at the transmission mounts and they looked ok, but I will look again.
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