I've been battling my suspension for past few weeks and no success. In the biginning it started with hard thumping noise I quickly diagnosed it to bad shocks. Replaced all 4 corners with new shocks. Noise went away and small vibration showed short after. I knew it was compression rod bushings since they were wearing out and replaced them together with both lower control arm bushings. Vibration went away and now I got clunky suspension.
I looked at every possible issue and cant find anything wrong with any of the parts. This week I'm replacing upper control arm bushings (simply cuz I already replaced every other one, might as well do these).

After tiring research I suspect that stabilizer bar end links or even bushings could be a problem. When I jack up the car though , there is no play anywhere in the suspension parts. Everything snug, new and tight. I got 170k on the car, end links on the stabilizer bar were not replaced since, but they feel solid. there is no play in them when I move them by hand. That might change when you set few thousand pounds on them, but I don't know where to look for the problem anymore.

Someone give me some kind of advice. This clink is bothering me. I cant even enjoy the car anymore.

 

First, I mean no condescension, but did you tighten the nuts on the c-rod ball joints all the way? Also, is the subframe tightened all the way? (165ft/lbs on the 2 big bolts, 65-70ft/lbs on the 14mm bolts)

Now, beyond those two things, the best way to find a clunk is to take it to a shop, put it on a lift and just have them start tugging on stuff. You can usually recreate the sound. They'll usually do it for free, but if they offer to fix it cheap, its always better to be in good standings with a shop. Sometimes throwing them a little business can help you with other stuff in the long run. Otherwise, if its expensive, they'll usually understand that you're a car guy and wanna fix it yourself, then they won't charge.

 

I have a lift and I tugged on every possible thing I could think of. All bolts are tight . Nothing else I can blame but the upper control arm bushings (which I'm replacing) and end links.

I was looking to see if anyone had any experience with end links related to clunking.

 

Absolutely. The end links are crap, and I've had mine go out. You should be able to tug on the sway bar and recreat the sound tho. If you have any torn boots on any of them too, that's an obvious sign.

What about lower ball joints? Any tears there?

 

no tears in any ball joints and no play. I'm not sure how small of a play it has to be to make the clunking noise.

My compression rod is on a third bushing set now. I bet that ball joint in it would fail the tension and spin test, but there is no significant play in it.

The end links are stock and I've been lowered for past 120k or so with those end links.

So they were working under stress for quite a while, but as I've mentioned there is no play in them while the clunking is significant especially under load and when hitting bumps.

I think I'm going to make my own adjustable end links to see if that's the issue, or remove the sway bar completely just to see if that's the case.