rear suspension clunk
 

I have about 4500 miles on the car and have developed a slight clunk in the rear suspension. Anyone notice a similar issue?

I hear the same clunk on mine. Is that normal?

I have similar sound from rear left corner. First thing to check is the poorly installed jack back there. In my case it was loose far from snug anyway so the jack jump in his enclosure and hit the cardboard and make the pok pok

Guess I have the rear deck rattle, but there also seems to be a separate passenger-rear suspension clunking type of sounds when going over dots.
Anybody figure out the source of the suspension clunking, other than a loose jack on driver side?
Mine almost sounds like a spring or shock clunking/rattling.

What do you mean by "dots"?

I hear a single pop/knocking noise from the driver side rear when going over a speed bump or a drive way in an angle. It seems to be louder when going left first. It's easy to reproduce the noise in a parking lot with speed bumps. I'm suspecting it's the rear deck making this noise. But it could be described as suspension clunk noise. I'm pretty sure mine is not the suspension because I can reproduce this noise at 2 mph and when the rear tires are not going over any type of bumps. I was just wondering if yours might be the rear deck too.

those yellow dome like things they put in parking lots to rattle the car when you go over them.

I see. You and I are hearing a different noise then. That won't be enough of a body flex to make the noise I'm hearing.

I hear the same thing. I talked to some subie techs and they all said its because its an LSD. The LSD can be kind noisy especially when you are turning, under torque load, etc

They have an LSD not an open diff and the sound they make on slow tight turn is more like scrubbing judder if that makes sense. Not a clunk or nock.

LSD is what i meant. I had my car in the shop for 3 weeks trying to find this noise. Plus they were able to reproduce it again and again with the clunk. Guess if all else fails everyone can get all the aftermarket braces struts and suspension components and see if that fixes it.

sounds like the effect of the torsen, if you were slightly lifting a wheel

I get driver side clunk over certain bumps. It is definitely not the lsd. Ive just been living with it, don't notice any adverse effects from it. Would be interested if someone found the cause though.

I've noticed a similar sound, but only in the morning while backing up from my driveway. I believe its what is described in the TSB sticky section (Popping Sound from Trunk / Rear Shelf Area). Did the fix desribed (lubing the panel joints, etc.) and it seemed to have worked.

Interesting to know that torsen makes a popping sound. But I can reproduce the noise while in neutral too.

Did you do both of the fixes? One is in the trunk and another one is from the rear seat removing the rear deck panel.

Yes, did both. Put some lube in between the panels but did not bend the sheet metal back.

Just had odd clunking or popping from what sounded like the rear left almost as if the rear wheel kept hitting something as it was turning. Stopped after half a mile, car was cold and sat for maybe 16 hours. No idea what it was and a spot check of the rear wheels produced nothing.

Gonna bump an older thread. My car does this. A clunk, almost sounds like a loose center strut bolt, but the bolt is tight.

I've been trying to listen to this as closely as possible. It almost sounds like the rear tire, maybe where the driver is located in the car is why it is more noticeable on the driver's side

Anyone find out what this is? Any luck tracking it down?

check to see if the sway bar end links are tight

I'll see what i can do about getting down there today, but the car is 100% stock. I did a search, not find any information on end links being loose, but plenty on a drivers side suspension clunk. Weird.

Checked the links. All is well. Just going to ignore it. For all i know its doing the same on the passenger side and is just not right behind my ear

I got the same clunk on the left rear when going over bumps. I mostly hear it when going over bumps at speed...thought of emptying out the trunk to see if it was anything in my trunk. Or just waiting for my next service appointment to bring it up.

Yeah, oddly, i don't think anything is wrong. I hit a bump evenly, i don't hear it. I hit just on the drivers side, i do. I am wondering if we are just hearing regular suspension noise and more so because it is so close to the driver. Gonna ask the dealer next time I take it in. I need to start making a list of things to have looked at.

Update.

For me at least, it was my freakin' jack! lol. When I first got the car, I had to add those rear grommets that go over the strut to keep water out. Well, I never pulled anything apart, just shoved my head down there and took care of it. The carpet/panel on the drivers side never fully laid back down.

After hearing a couple people mention the jack, I checked it out last night. Messed with the jack a little and sure enough, it made the same noise. It's not a tight fit so it bounces around pretty easily back there. I looked everything over and got everything to lay down like it should. The clunk is gone.

Crazy part is, when I went over some speed bumps today it made the noise! Go figure, it could be something so simple! All that to say, it's a bit annoying, but now that I know what it is, WHO CARES!? It's like the chirp. Not hurting anything, so all is well. :thumbsup:

I'll check that out too.

I keep a cloth in my car so I suppose I'll shove the cloth where the jack is to prevent it from moving. Hopefully that resolves the noise issue.

any solutions for the clunk if its not the jack?
I get it going over bumps at slow speeds and even when slowing down on a smooth surface

You actually pull the jack? Mine still does it, but if you play with the jack a little and look that one end of it is in the rear quarter panel, it'll echo.

Slow speeds are kind of odd. Mine is over a quick drop whether it be a speed bump or uneven road.

If it's a low thud, my vote would be the rear end. They seem to be noisy in this car.

Is it just me or does the clunk seem to be worse when it's cold? I live in Florida and on cold mornings I hear it at low speeds over bumps. Once the temp warms up in the afternoon I don't hear it at all. I have to say that I adore this car but it does have some strange quirks!!

yea took it out for a few days to see if it still clunks... and it does =S

Took the jack out and it still does on the drivers rear?

For those of you with this issue, mess with the foam piece that holds the jack and tow hook. My noise came back and got louder. Make sure it doesn't move easily. I pushed on that push pin that holds it down and messed with the positioning a little. The push pin went in a little more and the whole piece sat in much better with ZERO movement without actually pushing on it. My "clunk" is 100% gone. No clue why or what caused it but i was wrong before on the jack. If the noise comes back, I'm gluing the thing down.

Noise came back. Anyone have a solution for this? I pulled some of the stuff out of the trunk and the clunk was still there. Drivers side only as far as I can tell. I messed with the foam again and while it does move, there is no way its moving with the carpet and stuff on top.

This is frustrating.

@Gen @akustique @Cameronghanson @OrbitalEllipses @automatic

The clunk on my car is really bugging me and I'm trying to figure this out. It gets better the longer I drive and it's worse when it's cold. Also, it's only happens on a sharp drop like say a pot hole style drop or a quick upward force of the suspension. I can hit dips on the freeway with out a single bit of noise.

Anyway, has anyone found a solution to this? I was doing a little reading and just looked up rear suspension clunk and found out the the STI's are notorious for having this rear suspension clunk. I wish I knew more about our suspension, but I imagine it's pretty similar.

Here is what I found:

"As many of you are aware inverted struts can develop an annoying "clunk". The problem is apparently caused by a lack of grease being distributed from the strut chamber onto the damper body. This causes two coated (Teflon?) bushings to not receive proper lubrication resulting in wear and rear strut movement becoming noisy, clunky and rough. One symptom is that when the car is stopped and the rear end raises up a bit, it remains up until the car begins forward motion then the rear suspension allows the body to drop abruptly with an audible clunk.....most of us find this really annoying.

The cure is to somehow cause the inner sealed bushings to become greased. There are only two ways I know to do this.....1. Remove the entire strut assembly, disassemble, clean and repack with grease and reinstall, or, 2. Remove the rear struts, disassemble, drill and tap to install a grease fitting, clean, repack and reinstall. #2 is intended to keep you from having to repeat #1 and save your struts in the process by allowing you to either routinely add a dab of grease or add grease when and if the clunking returns."

I'm almost at 3000 miles and at that point I wanna have toyota check this. Any thoughts? Could we possibly be experiencing a similar issue?

My Koni inserts will be here today and I should start building them this weekend and have them on then car hopefully within the month. If I still have the noise I'd be shocked (pun intended). Were you able to isolate it to either the front or rear shocks? To me it seemed like it was the front making noise on compression...and while it made the noise in the cold, it was very intermittent; Sometimes in the 20s, it sometimes occurred in the 30s with no real pattern.

Mine is just the rear passenger. If this becomes anything like the issue the STI's are having I'm adding coilovers. I hope it doesn't come to that. It is more noticeable when the car has been sitting. It really does sound like a blown strut or a loose center bolt. Gonna head down to the dealer today. I changed my mind

Well, problem found. Blown strut. Go figure, right? So, the car is staying at the dealer for a couple days. Car has 2400 miles on the clock. Toyota rep is coming down from irvine to document, strut is already on its way. They said i should have it back tomorrow or saturday at the latest.

Attachment 33571

How did they determine this? Leak?

No idea. I just took it to toyota and told them that the rear driver side strut was making some noise. I said that I doubt it was blown, but maybe the top nut loosened a little. I waited for about an hour or so and then the service guy came in and told me that he needed to keep the car and that the strut was blown.

The car is a DD and most of the roads I go on are REALLY smooth. Having had a super low car as my last DD, I still tend to avoid the rough roads. Odd, but at least it's under warranty :thumbsup:

I will be interested to see of this really fixes the issue. I have the same rear passenger clunk but I am on coilovers. I don't have it now since I am in Florida and the weather has been much warmer. Last month before it warmed up I had the clunk just about every morning on the way to work.

I have some wacky clunks from the rear as well, took the foam with tools out and still have it. Gonna go through and re-tq all the suspension tomorrow night.

Please post back after you get the car back.

Absolutely! I should have it back in the next couple days