knocking noise

[ocorral20]

i replaced my struts all around but i still hear a knocking noise when i hit lil bumps on the road.... this noise was there before i replaced my struts.. and i thought it would be fixed after replacing... anyone have any idea what it could be????????????

 

[Jim Henderson]

Time to put it up on jackstands and crawl around underneath pulling and wiggiling anything you can see. Usually knocking from bumps is some loose hardware like...

Mufflers, exhaust hangers, splash/rock shields, loose suspension parts, engine and tranny mounts etc. Once I found (on a different car) that the exhaust had some resonance weights(I guess) that hung from the pipes and one was loose and knocking the floor boards.

Try to localize where the sound is coming from. Is it a thump on the floor? A sound from one of the corners? Under the hood?

Drive with your windows closed and with them open to see if you can hear and locate the sound better. Driving near walls or under quiet bridges helps reflect the sound back so you can tell which side of the car it is on.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

[2k2ls]

sway bar links

 

[01lssport]

sway bar links, sway bar bushings, ball joints are all metal to metal sounds. The sway bar bushings went bad on mine with only 48,000 miles on them. The smallest bumps would make it knock fairly loud.

 

[2k2ls]

try jacking the car up and rocking the wheel up and down if theres play it may be a ball joint. then try side to side almost like your trying to turn the wheel if theres play that way then you may be leaning towards tie rods. Also with a large screwdriver or prybar apply pressure to the swaybar and check for play. Last thing after all that would be to check for a leaking strut, a broken spring, a worn out strut mount and worn out bushings. if all that fails put your radio louder....

 

[lsbit]

Sway bar bushings are a good bet. I have posted before that there is no way to tell if yours are bad. You will have to replace them. They will look good even if they are bad. I went through this myself. I had ball joints that were completely shot and thought replacing those would take care of it...nope. Darn $10.00 bushings. The passenger side one is a PITA to replace though.

 

[2k2ls]

you can check for bad sway bar links and bushings if you have ramps.