"klunk" in front, left suspension.

I really couldn't hear the noise. It was more of a feeling. I'm just more sensitive to this kind of thing than most. I couldn't feel it through the steering wheel and thus ruled out the tie-rod ends or anything else to do with the steering rack. I doubted it was the wheel bearing as I had replaced this 2.5 years ago. I then pulled off the wheel and began checking for ball joint looseness. There was none. I decided to check the various nuts and bolts for the A-arms, shocks, sway bars, etc. It turned out that one of the mounting bolts on the lower A-arm was a little loose. It barely took a full turn of the wrench to snug it up. This shouldn't be surprising as it is a 16 year old car with 77,000 miles on it.

Well, the "klunck" is gone and the car feels much tighter.

Two things to be taken from this exercise. First, don't always assume the worst when something goes wrong. Check the simplest things first. Secondly, whenever you pull a wheel or find yourself under your car for any reason, bring along a handful of wrenches and tighten every nut and bolt in sight. You'll be amazed at what can loosen up after 16 years.


Tom