Front end clunking/popping noises? HELP

[RedSiBaron]

Mine has been doing the same thing for at least 6 months now. Random clunking on suspension load/turning and over bumps.

One of these days I'm going to to find some time and do some (more) suspension work. ie: new endlinks, new tie rids, new swaybar bushings and replacing the top hat bearing. That'll give me an excuse to go in and get a fast road alignment.

If that doesn't fix it I'll just drive the car into the ocean.

In my case I know its not my axles, because I rebuilt my Type S axles before installing them with my 5-lug last year. Ball joints are (or should be) still good too since they came off a RSX-S with 16k miles.

well if this helps anyones logic i just replaced my endlinks, my honda type r sway bars, my honda sway bushings, type s knuckles, koyo bearings, rebuilt type s axles with honda rebuild kits, new moog lower ball joints, new honda tie rod ends...that was 3 weeks ago and my clunk just started friday evening after travelling down a shitty pa highway that was causing my car to go over pot holes and bumps for about 5 miles straight...what you guys think about it now???...top hat bearings got beat up and old after 63k??? might make sense...my suspension is all shiny and new 10k ago, so...not thinking its that...havnt gotten a chance to check and retorque bolts but im thinking its that bearing...all signs point to that...thoughts?

[ep3moschini]

well if this helps anyones logic i just replaced my endlinks, my honda type r sway bars, my honda sway bushings, type s knuckles, koyo bearings, rebuilt type s axles with honda rebuild kits, new moog lower ball joints, new honda tie rod ends...that was 3 weeks ago and my clunk just started friday evening after travelling down a shitty pa highway that was causing my car to go over pot holes and bumps for about 5 miles straight...what you guys think about it now???...top hat bearings got beat up and old after 63k??? might make sense...my suspension is all shiny and new 10k ago, so...not thinking its that...havnt gotten a chance to check and retorque bolts but im thinking its that bearing...all signs point to that...thoughts?

I have 68k miles . . . maybe we have hit the millage marker where the top hats just give up the ghost

[RedSiBaron]

I have 68k miles . . . maybe we have hit the millage marker where the top hats just give up the ghost

yah, i wonder if thats what it is, im going to price them out from honda on wed when i order some other little crap, if they arent too much ill get them, if they are ill get them from napa and we'll see if they fix it...

[PogoFX]

My car's in the shop right now. I drove it with a technician and he heard the noise loud an clear. He said, "that should be pretty easy to find." I said, "it's been six years of guys trying to find this noise, I sure hope you're right." I was just happy that my car decided to do it with the tech in the car. I'll let everyone know today what he finds.

[RedSiBaron]

My car's in the shop right now. I drove it with a technician and he heard the noise loud an clear. He said, "that should be pretty easy to find." I said, "it's been six years of guys trying to find this noise, I sure hope you're right." I was just happy that my car decided to do it with the tech in the car. I'll let everyone know today what he finds.

well see if he actually finds it, those bearings wouldnt look worn on top of the shocks, plus you have to wonder if hes going to actually take the perch off your springs to even find that...so my guess is that i doubt he'll find the popping noise without this kinda direction...hell either say he couldnt find it or he did and it will come back...thats just me being negative

[PogoFX]

well see if he actually finds it, those bearings wouldnt look worn on top of the shocks, plus you have to wonder if hes going to actually take the perch off your springs to even find that...

Like I said earlier in this post, my original dealer replaced both struts to no avail. I mentioned this to the tech and I also asked about that top bearing. He said that the bearing would have been replaced with the struts - that it comes packaged together. I have no way of knowing if this is true . . . any guesses?

[RedSiBaron]

Like I said earlier in this post, my original dealer replaced both struts to no avail. I mentioned this to the tech and I also asked about that top bearing. He said that the bearing would have been replaced with the struts - that it comes packaged together. I have no way of knowing if this is true . . . any guesses?

it doesnt come packaged with the struts, it also doesnt come with the perch...honda would have just done struts im thinking...or atleat im going off of the fact that the honda parts listing doesnt list any of them grouped together on the front suspension...

[slate13530]

My car's in the shop right now. I drove it with a technician and he heard the noise loud an clear. He said, "that should be pretty easy to find." I said, "it's been six years of guys trying to find this noise, I sure hope you're right." I was just happy that my car decided to do it with the tech in the car. I'll let everyone know today what he finds.

Tell your technician to either replace the top hats if they will under warranty or just grease up the beargins.

I've had this clunking noise since I installed my coilover's and from reading before this site went down. It's due to the tops hats not being greased up. Try regreasing them suckers and make sure the springs are aligned properly.

Hopefully that should help.

I'm re-doing my suspension this weekend hopefully so while I"m at it I'm going to grease up my top hats. I'll post up my results once I get them.

[RedSiBaron]

Tell your technician to either replace the top hats if they will under warranty or just grease up the beargins.

I've had this clunking noise since I installed my coilover's and from reading before this site went down. It's due to the tops hats not being greased up. Try regreasing them suckers and make sure the springs are aligned properly.

Hopefully that should help.

I'm re-doing my suspension this weekend hopefully so while I"m at it I'm going to grease up my top hats. I'll post up my results once I get them.

im going to call you out on this one, mine were totally greased up 10k ago and im clunking...i dont think its grease i think its the top hat getting old and freezing up, when i did the suspension at around 50k the passenger side one was pretty much gunked up and not moving, so i got it freed up and spinning again and regreased...it prolly only bought me 15k and i bet if i pull it out it will be stuck frozen but still have grease...my vote is the compression on them wears them out...

[PogoFX]

Well the stealership still has my car, they kept it overnight. I guess it wasn't as easy as the tech said it was going to be - big surprise. I'll keep you posted.

[RedSiBaron]

Well the stealership still has my car, they kept it overnight. I guess it wasn't as easy as the tech said it was going to be - big surprise. I'll keep you posted.

did you mention the tophat bearings to him?

[PogoFX]

did you mention the tophat bearings to him?

Yes, I did. Like I said, he seemed to think that it would have been replaced when my struts were replaced. I doubt it. Like so many techs I've talked to, he already had in his head what the possible problems were and didn't really want to hear my opinions. I mean, what the hell could I possibly know about my car? He started talking about brake pads and other crap. I'm not overly confident that they will solve the problem. I'm fully expecting that they will blame this on my Eibach's even though the problem was there long before I had the springs installed.

[SyckSiR]

my coils slunked for a while, i was too stupid to tighten the nuts at the top :director: kev ur a moron!

[slate13530]

im going to call you out on this one, mine were totally greased up 10k ago and im clunking...i dont think its grease i think its the top hat getting old and freezing up, when i did the suspension at around 50k the passenger side one was pretty much gunked up and not moving, so i got it freed up and spinning again and regreased...it prolly only bought me 15k and i bet if i pull it out it will be stuck frozen but still have grease...my vote is the compression on them wears them out...

My car just hit 40k and I only had this problem since I installed the aftermarket stuff.

I'll keep you posted though.

[PogoFX]

Well, I just got my car back from the dealer and big surprise . . . no fix. I talked with the tech for a while. He tightened everything, did a couple of service bulletins, pulled the strut and inspected everything. The top bearing was in good condition. He worked on the car for several hours and spent a bunch of time on the phone with Honda. He was cool about not blaming it on my aftermarket springs, since I had the problem long before they were installed. He did recommend that I should consider changing my struts out to match the springs a little better and that maybe I'll get lucky and that will take care of it. I guess one cool thing was that they didn't charge me for anything. My car is an '02 and out of warranty.

I can't believe that no one can figure this out. I'm so tired of this noise! I'd get rid of my car if I didn't love it so much.