Clunk/Moving noise when doing parking and going up drive ways at an angle

[Ben]

Hey all,

I have a 2009 Subaru Forester XT, for quite some time it had a horrible sound when you would accelerate hard in first gear from a rolling start, like something was banging against the control arm.
Another issue is when doing slow parking turns where the ground is uneven or any kind of articulation, there would be some clunking in the front end, its almost as if the wheel had play in it.

Long story short – I took it to a suspension specialist to checkout these issues, they did a wheel alignment and informed me that the toe was out by quite a lot (14mm out apparently) and this could cause some weird issues with the suspension, knocking/clunking etc.

I can accelerate hard in first gear without the car’s suspension making horrible noises but now, but the noise when going into drive ways and parking is still there.

Things I have tried;

Swapped out front CV shafts
Had original shocks/springs swapped with coilovers (currently installed in car)
Removed front sway bar completely (eliminates sway bar links as noise)
Removed after market front strut bar
Replaced entire control arms, both sides (inc new ball joints, bushes)
Checked torque specs on Control arm mounts/Shock mounts – suspension shop said these were good too

Problem is still there, not sure what else it could be?
Can’t feel any play in the wheels, could it be a steering rack?

Topic