I have a very odd front end clunk going on. Seems to only occur once the car has been driven for awhile and everthing warms up. It clunks when you turn, brake, and sometime accelerate. Seems like turning the wheel back and forth yields a clunk (you can be parked or moving) and when you hit bumps. Same deal when you hit the brakes or accelerate from a stop.
I swear I can even feel the clunk in the pedals when it happens. What is wierd is that when the car is cold, you never hear the noise.
I'm gonna crawl around under there tomorrow and see what I can find. Anyone have anything similar to this? Any ideas on what to look for?
I had the wife turn the wheel and the steering shaft is not hitting the headers and nothing seems to be binding up.
While my past clunks turned out to be worn out strut mounts and other more rare issues, I think the thread below is pretty spot on with "clunks" coming from the front - it even has the exact same thread title. Pretty much anything can make a clunk which is why I decided to get an electronic stethoscope from here on out as they can be such a nightmare to find in certain cirspoogestances ;)
http://foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=20429&highlight=clunk
Yeah I saw that thread when I searched and will check that out. It seems like it would have to be something like that, but the fact that it only does it after you drive awhile throws me for a loop.
I have never changed the strut mounts though, only the struts a couple of times.
check your swaybar fram bushings, I had a TC once that clunked and that was the swaybar floopin around in the bracket
There's always bushings that get softer when warm and also get shifted around with wheel movement...stock rubber should be replaced by now. Autozone's got some strut mount replacements that come with replacement rubber bushings but can use the same poly ones that Mustangs do. Of course, this also means alignment afterward...
Check out everything else in the area first. Swaybar and endlink bushings and mounts can be replaced/torqued without needing anything alignment related and can also cause clunks/pops - again there's a bushings issue that can soften when it warms up more.
Then there's brakes, especially if a piston is seizing up, but the others are more likely I would think, especially if it makes noise over and over just turning the wheels.
I'd check all that out but there's always the pricey control arms with their bushings (not likely but they have bushings) and ball joints but again, expensive so look elsewhere first.
Steering rack bushings?
Yeah - lots of stuff that can shift around.
also check the steering rack mount bushings.