I hear a scrape and pop sound when going over bumps and a metal scrape when turning. Sound appeared to be mainly coming from the front and back on both sides. Dealer had said it was front struts, bearing within the mounts, and also listed an line item for “sway bar link kit (front) - Replace ADD SWAY BAR BUSHING” for ~$600.
The sway bar bushing is molded to the sway bar, so you can’t replace just the sway bar bushings. Replacing the sway bar on this car requires lowering the front subframe. So I am not exactly sure what that line item was referring to. I assume it was referring to the front sway bar end links only (not the bushing and sway bar), as I assume two sway bar end links + sway bar + labor would likely cost more than $600. I know most dealerships replace the end links when replacing struts.
Anyways, I wiggled around the front sway bar and end links with all might, and could not make any clunk of pop sounds.
Replaced both front McPherson Strut assemblies in the front. The scraping sound is gone and the pop sound went away for a few days and came back, but not as loud. Now it sounds like it’s coming from the front passenger side only as well as the rear. Metal scraping sound going away seems to align with the top bearings in the mount for McPherson strut assemblies going bad causing the scraping sound.
The front outer tie rods seemed extremely loose. I could wiggle them around with my hand and create clunking sounds. Boots were not torn. Replaced both outer tie rods. Sound persisted.
Replaced rear struts. Sound persisted. Sound after the repairs can be best described as a “clunk” or “pop” sound when going over bumps. There are no “squeak” sounds when turning the steering wheel
At this point I’m thinking a pop/clunk sound could be a control arm bushing or engine/transmission motor mount. However all the bushings look great. Extremely smooth looking with no cracks or tears. The motor/transmission mounts look good as well.
At this point I’m not sure what else it could be. Thanks for any help in DIAG this further. At this point I’m tempted to just buy some chassis ears to get a better gauge on where it is coming from.
Did you check the sway bar links with the weight of the car both on and off the ground??
Have you disconnected the sway bar end links and drive around checking for the noise??
Sometimes doing a wiggle test will not show up a loose suspension part if it has a load on it, you may have to hit it with your hand, but it may have to be with the weight on the tires such as the vehicle being on ramps and other times the wheels need to hanging such vehicle on jack stands…
Need to go over all the control arm and cradle bolts (any suspension part) to make sure all is tight, including whatever you messed with during your ball joint nut issue…
You can also (using a friend/spouse) check to see if the wheel(s) is shifting forward/backward by watching the wheel while braking forward/backward, slow speed, pretty quick and easy test…
Was this noise there before you started messing around with the suspension, eg ball joints or???
And yes at this point a set of chassis ears would have more than paid for it’s self…
Thanks for the input. This was with the car up off the group, all four tires in the air. Didn’t think about trying with suspension loaded. Have not tried yet driving around with sway bar end links removed. Thanks for the hint about looking at the tire for shifton.
Yes the noise was there prior to messing around with the suspension. The pop sound was always there, but it seems to have gotten louder and more frequent. The scrape sound was there, but had now gone away after replacing parts.
Can suspension nuts or bolts come loose on their own, and I should check to make sure I cannot wiggle them with my hand? I made sure to use a torque wrench on all fasteners I unfastened. Except for the lower nuts on the rear suspension. But enough space against the spring to get a socket on there. But still have same sound after replacing the rear suspension
The sway bar links are, by far, the cheapest parts you could replace. That is the place you should have started, or at least replaced when you replaced the struts.
Sway bars themselves rarely ever fail and when they do you WILL notice it! Their frame mount bushings can wear out and are cheap to replace. They are easy to replace IF you don’t have to drop the subframe to do the job.
No, by the time they will wiggle by hand they are about to fallout… A bolt/nut can be a little under torque spec and make noise…
How do you know your torque wrench is even calibrated correctly, especially if you have had it a while??.. We used to have to swap out our (work) Snap-on torque wrenches for torquing lug nuts/bolts every 6 months and they were almost always out of spec a little…
Check strut mount bolts they may be loose. Very easy to check if you can open the hood. Or the sway bar link or bushes, pretty common if the noise was there before.