2001 S40 with 105,000 miles.

Just started making this really loud clunking sound by the drivers side front tire. When accelerating from a stop I don't hear the clunking sound until I let off the gas or level off at a certain speed. The clunking is very loud and I can feel it under my feet. The clunking sound speeds up at higher speeds and slows down as the car slows. The clunking will all but stop when I apply the brakes but as soon as I let off the brakes it comes right back. Any ideas on what to look for would be appreciated.

 

I suspect the bushing for the anti-sway bar. To check, get a strong light and turn the wheel all the way right. (It may help to jack up the car and secure it on jackstands.) Follow the anti-sway bar from the wheel back to where it goes up under the body. You should see an aluminum bracket that holds the anti-sway bar down and bolts to the frame. If that bracket is broken the anti-sway bar will make a loud banging noise every time you hit a bump. Since it's right below your feet you feel it and hear it there.

When mine broke I looked and looked but never saw the problem because the bracket was completely broken off. It wasn't until I compared it to the passenger side that I noticed what should have been there. The gotcha here is that if you have the same problem then the passenger side bracket will probably soon fail because of the bending caused by the missing drivers side bracket.

The cost for me was about $25 per bracket (top and bottom pieces) and a couple hours of trying to get my hand into a very small space. One poster here says you can drop the engine cradle just a tad to get more room. Never tried that myself.

 

Your advice was appreciated. I did find the cause of the issue. Turns out when I went to pull the wheel off, 3 of the 4 lug nuts were so loose I could unscrew them by hand. Nothing looked broken behind the wheel so I put the wheel back on and made sure to tighten the lugs down. Test drive and no more clunking. Would have never guessed that would be the issue. At least the cost to repair was $0.