Cautionary Caveat Concerning Clunks - IMPORTANT !

Post by **ARCHINSTL** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:47 am

A member whose name or post I cannot find (despite exhaustive searching) posted a note about this a year + ago.
He encountered a clunking from the right front of the car and, after exhausting investigations on various drive and suspension bits, noticed that the bolt (or bolts) holding the strut into the steering knuckle were a bit loose. This was not noticeable because of the crud covering the bolts.

Well, I noticed this same condition on the top bolt of the same right strut. This had also been masked by crud, and I had missed it when replacing the brakes a while back, but finally noticed it yesterday whilst replacing the tie rods. The camber adjuster had slid all the way to the top, giving maximum camber, which is why the outer edge of the tire was more worn than the inside edge (Duhh).

Since this happened in the same location on two different cars, it might behoove ALL to check this; it did cure the clunking from that corner of the car AND would be prudent from a safety aspect. The torque value for those bolts is 105 ftlbs. It would be a good idea to loosen all slightly and lube the threads before retorqueing; The other 3 bolts were tight and just slightly off the proper value.
Tom M.

tercel4wdrules · Post by **tercel4wdrules** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 7:50 pm

After rummaging through my mind, I believe it is this thread you are talking about:

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=99 ... c&start=30

It is located a little over half-way down the thread.

Post by **ARCHINSTL** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:09 am

Thanks, tercel4wdrules ! I really did what I thought was an exhaustive search, using all sorts of combinations of words associated with noise and position and threaded fasteners...

Wow, I was sure off on the date - guess I was recovering the day after my wild BDay festivities - as if!

And Thanks to coltarms for the original post (reproduced below).
"So the clunking sound was the bolts holding the ball joint on the passenger side. They had backed out but were covered with grease so they didn't look backed out. Tightened them up and VOY-OLA! the clunking sound is gone. No need for new inner tie rods. Steering is nice and tight, no play in wheel assemblies."
His problem was the bolts securing the ball joint, whereas mine was a bolt holding the strut into the knuckle. Similar but different.

Tom M.

PS: CHECK those bolts ! ! !