to sway bar or not

[dlb]

hi tom, yeah i did take a look. they were ok, and i've jacked the side up and shaken everything around to see if i can make it clunk but no dice. it probably needs a substantial weight, like that of the car, on it to make it make the sound. besides that, the front end on ron is really good so i'm not too worried but it can't hide forever--i'll find the gremlin sometime. i'll be sure to let everyone know what it was, as there seem to be many mystery clunks with these beasts.

[Petros]

You might try using a long pry bar on the suspension parts to see if you can get any movement or clunks, doing it by hand will not put enough load on it to see if there is anything loose.

I have had a clunk in my suspension for several years that I have not been able to locate, nor the local front end shop. I have even had the front struts out and back in, but found nothing wrong with it, but the clunk is still there. I suspect it might be one of the front bearings, I have run across a condition on another car where the wheel bearing could shift laterally back and fourth, yet still runs smooth and quiet (unlike a typical bad wheel bearing). Not really a hazard since the hub can not pull out of the knuckle, but it is annoying.

[Jarf]

On my last car I chased fr end clunks till I ran out of time and money then just gave up and considered them inherent. On this car I have changed almost everything (save RS axles and RS inner tie-rod) while I still don't have the new bar in place (that little o-ring is keeping things quiet for now).
The biggest changes I saw from replacement parts were fresh upper strut mounts and inner lower cont arm bushes.
The lower bushes were the biggest surprise as they checked out fine on the car, it was only when I removed the arms that I found that they were cracked and missing chunks. With the new bushes in, the arms were a LOT tighter.
I suspect they are an issue on many cars, as it is almost impossible to inspect without total disassembly.

[dlb]

inner lower control arm bushings were next on my list, knowing that you saw a big improvement with new ones gives me hope that they might be the cause. maybe one day i'll get tired of hunting down my mystery clunk (it's really more of a rattle, now that i think of it)... but not yet!