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I forgive the wall of text, and truly hope you read it as I’m fairly confident to get a “big picture” of what’s been happening it’s all related-ish. I’ve included any and all “symptoms” as to give a potential “oh, this sounds exactly like X part is bad or going bad”, you know?
At this point, I haven’t been able to find anything that’s loose or has movement. Everything in the actual wheel-well seems all solid, no movement to write home about, etc. I can’t seem to reproduce the problem with it just sitting, and that’s just bouncing it up/down (returns to level almost instantly), pushing it side-to-side, etc. I haven’t had time to get a solid look at the mounts/bushings in the R&P like Eric describes but the clunk really does sound like something is just “loose” and banging around freely when hitting bumps/front-end “flexing”.
I’ve taken this car (05 Neon) to 3 different mechanics with none of them supposedly able to find (mind you, none of them have charged me any sort of diagnostic fees so they might simply be looking for the obvious without being guaranteed money) what’s causing my clunks. I even told them I’d pay an hour labor for them to really take a look at it but none of them seem to want to charge me? lol
So that’s three mechanics, none of which could actually find anything that would cause clunks like I’m having, which is simply something “loose” banging around on bumps or something “bottoming out” when hitting bumps. Seems to come from the side the bump is actually hit on. Can feel the “clunk” through the steering wheel as well as the pedals.
Honestly though, not to re-hash another thread of mine but here’s a current running tally of what’s been happening and what’s been fixed.
Symptoms:
Growl above 35mph when wheel is straight and turned right. – SOLVED PARTIALLY (more on this below)
Clunks when hitting SOME bumps AND feeling it in the pedals/steering wheel, all at varying speeds and sometimes not at all.What’s been replaced:
Upper, Lower, Driver-side/Tranny motor mounts – I did NOT replace the “middle” mount so the clunks (although they come from BOTH sides on the front-end depending on the bump hit, as well as feeling it in the pedals/steering wheel) may or may not be related to this at all.Driver/Passenger bearings (reading this is needed for full context) – First place I ever went to said driver bearing, which I assumed with the above symptoms. Needless to say they replaced the driver bearing and nothing changed. I took it back since I needed the car for the week so the next week I took it back for them to do the passenger side (for free) and all growling is gone.
The real interesting part to me – BOTH bearings were replaced ~1 week ago and the second shop I took it to (literally for the front-end clunks) called me up and said “both rear control arm bushings are bad (which I thought as well) and your passenger bearing is bad”. Now, this second location is a different “branch” of this family owned service center and had literally zero knowledge of any prior work performed at the first branch. Needless to say I just told them to replace the entire control arm, with the bushing and new ball joint already pressed in. So I have 2 new control arms, ca bushings and ball joints. They told me that although there’s literally zero complaints of growls or anything like that it was “bad” since the hub was loose? Either way, taking it in tomorrow to have them replace that (free this time as well lol, so I’d find it hard to believe this place is going to eat the cost of these parts AND labor unless these things are really bad – and yes, they do have the bearing as I seen the one they ordered for it so it’s not a “scam” going on or anything) and balance/rotate/alignment.
BOTH WHOLE Control Arm Assemblies (with bushings and ball joints already pressed in) – Both rear control arms bushings were bad and yes I know they were. To give some further context to this the passenger side rear control arm bushing was replaced exactly 1 year ago. Now, something to add to the control arm aspect is that yes, I did need an alignment before they did it but when I got the car back (pisses me off that they apparently don’t test drive vehicles after replacing parts……) the alignment was worse than before the control arms (and they swear up and down that control arms won’t affect the alignment to the extend I’m talking) and I mean the steering is loose as hell, oddly when hitting bumps with the left wheel doesn’t cause any noticeable “jerk” when hitting bumps but the passenger side is a whole different story. Also, (my friends all call me a hypochondriac at this point, but let’s all be real we all know when something just isn’t “right” with out cars…)
Now, this is going to sound funny with the hypochondriac statement above, but I SWEAR since getting the vehicle back after replacing the control arms, depending on just how much of a “dip” either wheel “goes in”, it seems like when it’s coming back “out” of the dip it “spins” real quick before gaining traction again is the best way I could describe it. Think “spins” in terms of what it “feels like” when doing a burn-out. The same “feeling” of a “spin” seemed to happen a few times when hitting 50mph and shifting from one gear to another. Until the alignment is done and this new passenger bearing is put in, I’m not going to worry too much about this yet. LOL
So, that’s 2 locations that actually replaced parts. Both of which I knew the parts were bad, so no I know it’s not “scam mechanics” or anything like that. The 3rd location (not related to the above “branches” was purely with “hey I have some clunks, go for a test drive so you can hear them”, which they did. They didn’t charge me a dime, so I’m really unsure if they spent any real amount of time digging for the cause but needless to say called me up to say “I looked at everything and can’t find anything that sticks out. So outside of throwing parts at it, I really have nothing to tell you.”
So that’s three mechanics, none of which could actually find anything that would cause clunks like I’m having, which is simply something “loose” banging around on bumps or something “bottoming out” when hitting bumps. Seems to come from the side the bump is actually hit on. Can feel the “clunk” through the steering wheel as well as the pedals.
I keep telling myself, as much as it definitely clunks, and the mechanic who actually took me for a test drive felt and heard the clunk saying “I can’t find anything, as much as I know it obviously clunks” that I’m just going to get this passenger bearing replaced (again) and get an alignment and drive it till it breaks. No-one wants their car to break and I definitely don’t need it breaking when doing highway speeds with the kids in the car either though. 😛
Thanks again!
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