Front suspension bad clunking issue: Top Mount Shock Bushing/Nut or Control Arms?

[PwAg]

Before I go tearing the front suspension apart (would be my 1st time), was wondering if you guys could make sure I'm off in right direction.

Have a very bad clunking sound up front upon the slightest road undulations. Issue has been going on for some time, but was rather low-key until I recently put on my winter tire setup last week. Same USP OEM 18" rim, worn summer tread swapped off for new winter LM60 Blizzak @ local Discount Tire.

Clunking sounds somewhat similar to when I first had the suspension installed (incorrectly). Top mount strut bolt was not properly tightened and mechanic had to re-do install. Car is lowered on Vogtlands (~45k miles ago) and have driven rough CO roads for last 35k. Car has 95k, 60k of which was driven in San Diego. Still original control arms.

Is this plan of attack reasonable?

1. Check/tighten front sway-bar end links (2 weeks ago was on mt dirt road with high speed/small bumps of death)
2. Check/tighten control arm bolts
3. If no dice with 1&2, remove strut and check/tighten top oem strut bolt.
4. If no dice, remove strut again, use new bushing/top strut bolt.
5. If no dice, change control arms.
6. If no dice, drink self out of pain and bring to a shop.

Anything else basic I'm missing?

Any idea why clunking could become so much worse after new tread install? Weight of tires within a 1lb of each-other (new vs new spec). The old front tires, however, were worn to belts on insides. Car is sitting noticeably higher now due to high side-walls of winters.

Any input appreciated. Thanks!

[Street Nasty]

Could be your control arms. Can you recreate the sound on a lift or with the tires in the air?

[AZUltra]

I am going to say your best bet is doing steps 3 & 4 in one step. The sway bar endlinks would have to be installed very badly or completely broken to make a clunking sound, usually you will get a creaking sound when you endlinks are bad. You can inspect your control arms to determine if they are bad or not.

I would say pull the strut, install the new top mount, then tighten down a new nut, don't re-use the old one. (people often reuse the self locking single use nuts again and wonder why 15k or 30k miles later they have clunking again) Also make sure you have all of the appropriate washers in the right order.

Goodluck!

[rollerton]

I could see a nearly bad control arm bushing going all-out-bad when the car is up on the lift and the control arm is allowed to fall all the to extreme down position. You know the geometry: the middle of the control arm bushing doesn't spin/twist at all, ALL the of torsion is handled by the rubber, and there isn't a whole ton of movement torsionally (twist)in normal driving ( and even less on a lowered car?), some, but within a small area . So a bushing that's close to failing is 'twisted' too far when the car is raised, the control arm falls, and it fails all the way.
Could be something else,.. but if the CA's are OG gangsta' and @ 95k miles...the minutes are ticking on them anyway.

[PwAg]

Tx for input guys. Got car up, several of the upper control arm bushings have small cracks in them. Don't remember seeing 2 of them just a few weeks ago per cv axle swap, so rollerton may be on to something. Besides small cracks, is there any other way to tell if they are "completely" gone? I pulled/tugged on them all, w & w/o wheel, seem solid. Can't reproduce sounds, as Street Nasty questioned. Car still handles great.

Can't help but lean towards top shock mount/loose nut as it's incredibly clanky/clunky sounding up front and virtually same sound as the original bad coilover install. It would seem plausible that the same aggressive load/unload @ tire shop could have also accelerated the shock bushing/nut loosening?

I'm praying after I change out c-arms and top nut, that I don't find problem to be dismembered subframe issue that has popped up here on forums. I've taken some ugly hits to undercarriage, including one episode that blew a trans mount. I need to get a Suby Outback stat as a 3rd car for the mts.

[aubiexx]

Did you ever figure this out? I am dealing with the same thing.

[Tongpo]

A few months ago I had some nasty clunking going on in my front end (driver's side). The car handled fine, but I would always get the clunking when going over bumps at speeds below 40 mph (approximately). I initially thought it was the lower control arms since a couple of the boots were torn, so I replaced all the CA's - didn't eliminate the clunking. Went back in and replaced the shocks - bingo! The driver's side shock was bad. A seal must have failed as all the gas was gone. I only realized I had a bad shock when I drilled a hole in the shock to drain the fluid in preparation for disposal. When I drilled into the passenger side shock I could easily hear the gas escaping. When I drilled into the driver's side shock there was no sound of gas escaping. I don't know if there is a nondestructive way to tell if a shock is bad, but if there is, you may want to try that.