rear suspension clunk

[suaveflooder]

Originally Posted by vault

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?

[suaveflooder]

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.

[suaveflooder]

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.

[suaveflooder]

@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?

[OrbitalEllipses]

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.

[suaveflooder]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

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

[suaveflooder]

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.

[Dezoris]

Originally Posted by suaveflooder

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?

[suaveflooder]

Originally Posted by Dezoris

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

[greenguy101]

Originally Posted by suaveflooder

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

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.

[Dezoris]

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.

[suaveflooder]

Originally Posted by Dezoris

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

[automatic]

Originally Posted by suaveflooder

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.

Interesting.

Maybe I'll have mine checked out as well. Could it be a coincidence that we all have blown shocks on the drivers rear? The rear shocks on the left and right are the same I think....if that was the case I would think 50% of us will have it on the left and the other on the right.

[suaveflooder]

Originally Posted by automatic

Interesting.

Maybe I'll have mine checked out as well. Could it be a coincidence that we all have blown shocks on the drivers rear? The rear shocks on the left and right are the same I think....if that was the case I would think 50% of us will have it on the left and the other on the right.

I agree. I have read a couple people who said it was on the right so it might be right at that 50/50 mark. Either way, it doesn't seem to be common....which is a good thing