Fraugher Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 2012 Legacy i4 Limited has had front end suspension clunk since 18k miles (now 108k), has been diagnosed no less than 6 times, 4x Subaru, 2x non-dealer Subaru houses around here. Noone can come up with anything definitive, best guesses have been 5 different things. Definitely has gotten worse over the last 90k miles, but very slowly. Drives us absolutely crazy, if I could fix this, car would feel like new, everything running great and well taken care of. As it is, am feeling like I need to trade in for new because I just cannot take that clunk anymore. And I just cannot stomach doing 4 different repairs to not fix the situation. Slow speed only, bumps worse, turning no change, gets a little better as car warms up, always sounds like front left suspension, but sometimes it feels like directly under powertrain. Thunks and clunk has a repeatable/oscillating rattle/clunk for <1 sec after the clunk (some rebounding). Last diagnosis, front sway bar bushings, except they look perfectly fine and impossible to get play out of them, and greasing them up has no short-term impact. Rear sway bar (mod) has a little bit of play, but the sound cannot possibly be coming from back there. Directly addressed and checked one or more times- tie rods fine, ball joints fine, mounts fine, calipers fine, struts fine, steering rack fine. Thousands of posts over the web of people with phantom clunks on their Subbies trying stuff that doesn't fix it... please help or send lithium ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeuEmMaiMai Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 is your battery tied down tight? I had what I thought was a clunk come to find out it was the battery bouncing in the tray.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTEASER Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Have you looked at the condition of the front LCA rear bushing? Try backing off and re-torquing that bolt that holds it in. GTEASER's 2012 Legacy GT - Sold GTEASER's 2009 XTeaser - Sold GTEASER's 1992 Legacy SS - Sold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraugher Posted January 24, 2017 Author Share Posted January 24, 2017 Thanks for your replies. Battery looks good, will definitely a closer look at the LCA ! Am now realizing that last time I got this checked out, those clowns told me I need a new wheel bearing... I thought that was very unlikely and suspicious, but there diagnosis was that there was play in the wheel and would not pass inspection on it. Of course that play is probably still there an it's probably the LCA bushing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraugher Posted February 2, 2017 Author Share Posted February 2, 2017 So serviceship says no to LCA problems, looks fine. Of note is there is no effect whatsoever on steering and performance. They pointed to end links again even though they look perfectly fine and nothing changes greasing them up. Going to Hail Mary to our local backwoods non-dealer Subaru guys, who looked at this suspension 60k ago and couldn't figure it out. P.S. someone on this board just got a new 2016 and is already reporting this issue and dealership unable to find it... ugh. (they called it caliper bracket, one of the 6 calls I got that went nowhere) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootyologist Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 I feel ya buddy, I'm going through the same thing on mine. I also have koni inserts thrown into the mix that could be the source of the noises. I had my independent mechanic look at it a few months ago. Couldnt find anything. Subaru looked into it last week when I had the car in for some other things. Couldn't find anything. I'm going to wait until it warms up before tearing anything apart. Good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nads Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Well after 90k how have your tires been wearing? If good then its not suspension. I'd look at the exhaust specifically the hangers, heat shields, cats etc. Oddly my last car, a Mazdaspeed6 would clunk over speed bumps. It turned out to the the lid on the fuse/relay box under the hood. It would move up and down making a "cluck" sound when closing. I could hear it over my Magnaflow exhaust. Some mechanics have a tool that is a microphone designed to be place on the car in any location to listen for noise. I'd look for a guy with one of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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