I'm getting clunks from the front of my car, and this developed shortly after I put on the IPD sway bars and coilovers. It's only when I start acceleration from a stop or when I brake and get near the complete stop. I've also noticed it in slow turns, like when I'm backing out of a parking spot on completely smooth pavement with the wheel cranked, it has clunked. Or sometimes when I'm driving and I downshift and let off the clutch and you get that slight jolt with the new gear, it has done it then. Just this morning, I noticed that it did it when going over a couple of bumps, but otherwise it rarely clunks going over bumps, does not clunk going around turns, not when I'm driving on the freeway, and shifting.

I checked the front and rear engine mounts, they still look brand new. The side engine mount is new, but it was aftermarket, so that is a possibility I guess. I can feel it coming from like my feet though. And I swear it's coming from the wheel well areas.

Everything is tight and snug. Last weekend I took off the sway bar links and tightened the sway bar brackets, noticed the passenger one was a little loose, everything else is tight. My sway bar links seemed fine, but they could be bad. From what I've been reading, it's kind of sounding like the sway bar links are bad.

Any input or where I could continue looking? Thanks for the help.

 

I assume it is a notorious & famous problem for 850s; see attached for possibly worn out parts (spring seat). I replaced everything in the IPC except the coil spring & stabiliser (anti sway bar), then had 4-wheel alignment and the car felt like it was new and handling had also improved. If you do not wish to spend much money, you can eliminate the clunk by replacing the spring seat but since you wouldn't be digging into that area too often, I wanted to get everything done.


JPN

 

New spring seats, strut mounts, and control arms when I put in the coilovers. The only last remaining part is the sway bark links, however, they were replaced about a year ago with the IPD HD ones (but I have heard those are notorious for not lasting very long).

 

What about the CV's? I had a Mazda with similar symptoms and replacing the axles did the trick.

 

I have the same symptoms and I'm leaning toward the driver side cv. Tear down starts today for diagnosis.

 

Passenger side axle is new, no tears or anything on the driver's side so I assume it's in OK condition. I am getting the noise from both sides which leads me to believe that it's no the axles. And usually when the axles go, there's some vibration, and I don't have any vibrations.

I'm leaning towards the endlinks right now. I just don't know what else it could be.

 

The only 2 items connecting both sides of the front wheels are the sway bar and R&P assembly. If the latter was the case, you probably have noticed it by now so that one is probably out.

If everything around the sway bar is fine, then I would have the car lifted at a shop and check for visible traces.

BTW, are the brake calipers OK?


JPN

 

I did mine one time and had some clunking when I was done and I did new sway bar end links at the same time. I had everything tightened to torque specs and my son in law, the mechanic, said retighten everything and don't use the torque wrench, just tighten good-n-tight. Some of the bolts turned about 1/4 turn. Sure enough no more clunking. Now I never use a torque wrench on anything except the engine bolts.

 

I'm with Jim on this one; similar thing happened to me when i did my IPD bars and shocks, etc. Go back and double ck every bolt/nut; you'll find something that will tighten up a bit; then clunking should go away...

 

I was doing shocks, control arms and end links when I did this.

 

I'll tighten everything back up. I think I found part of the problem. When I did the sway bars I didn't tighten up the rear bolts all the way and the subframe sat loose for a couple drives. The rear brackets were fubared. They were all bent and the spot where the subframe bushing sits is no longer a circle, but an oval, and I think the pin in the subframe bushing is clipping the edge of the bracket. When I get new brackets in, I'll basically take out the suspension and put it all back in and do the whole thing over. I'm also going to put in new sway bar links. We'll see if that fixes it. If not, then my control arms may be bad already, even though I replaced them last month, they're aftermarket and they sit like this:



Wouldn't be surprised if I already blew the ball joints in the cheap aftermarket ones.

 

My son put aftermarket control arms on his S70 and they did not last either. I put OEM on when I did mine based mainly on his experience.

 

Yeah, my other ones only lasted about 6 months, however, that was on stock height, and after 6 months the bushings were completely gone, and I called FCP and let them know and they sent me new ones. I think the bushings are fine, but just because how they're sitting, obviously no longer anywhere near stock height, that the ball joints are blown. And when you lower your car, it's your ball joints that suffer the most. That and your lower back. lol.