My friends car has an overly annoying clunk and your help would be greatly appreciated.
It only makes the noise when braking hard or accelerating hard at any speed.
I replaced the motor mounts, sway bars and straightened the rear axel bushing mount. I’ve taken off the front right control arm and the tie rod end and they are in good condition. The tie rod end is very easy to move around and my guess is that’s the problem, the car feels loose at high speeds and the steering wheel shakes a little at high speeds too.
My first suspect with a clunk noise is a worn ball joint. Those can be lethal so inspect them closely.
If the clunk is in the front driver side why did you remove the right passenger side?
With high miles, if I’m going to the trouble of removing a control arm I’m probably going to replace it at that time. A worn ball joint can also cause loose steering and wheel shaking.
The divers side is on the right here. The ball joint felt good and fairly tight, with not too much grit or sand under the boot. Can I test it by putting a lot of weight in it with my foot?
We are now on a budget since replacing a few bushings already.
The tie rod end felt too easy to move around, is there meant to be a lot of resistance?
Any play/looseness in a tie rod end will cause that wheel to flutter/shake at speed. With the vehicle elevated, grasp both front tires and push /pull apart to check for looseness, any play will cause a shake in the steering.