Front. End. Clunk.

[Rittmeister]

Yup, I've got it. 2009 Outback 2.5i, 4EAT.

 

My car has a clunk that I can feel more than hear. I feel it in the brake pedal and the dead pedal/floorboard at very low speeds - parking lot speeds, coming to a stop at a light, etc. Like 10mph and lower.

I bought the car in February with plans. Here is the setup.

 

-JDM Rev A Bilsteins from a Legacy

-Whiteline rear toe and track arms KTA124

-Whiteline rear trailing arm bushing W63398

-Whiteline front control arm bushing W53353

 

I put all the above on to lower the car to a normal Legacy height and deal with ghostwalking and camber issues. I had this plan in place almost before I bought the car.

 

Since then I've also installed new front swaybar endlinks from Autozone (the stocks were shot), and new front balljoints from RockAuto (I killed the boots on the originals). I hardly drove the car between installing the big suspension items and putting these on.

 

At this point I started to notice this clunk. I jacked the car up several times to check tightness on all connections but found nothing loose anywhere. I also tightened the castle nuts on the balljoints another couple flats on the nut to verify that.

 

Every time I jack the car up and put it back down, the clunk goes away for a while but always returns. My searching indicates this is typical. My brother visited a few weeks ago; he has quite a lot of Subaru experience in addition to being an ASE trained mechanic; he also went over everything and verified that everything seems to be tight and sound.

 

The only thing he and I, and my searching here and elsewhere could think of, was swaybar bushings, so I replaced those with new OEM about two weeks ago. Due to COVID and my schedule I haven't driven it a ton, but it seemed to be OK until today, when I did about 150 miles this morning. Sure enough, as I approached home I felt it at a few lights, and when I pulled into my driveway it was back.

 

The only system I haven't touched is the brakes. I've heard that stuck slider pins can cause this issue, but the brakes seem to be working perfectly and I feel this is unlikely (though I'll probably check it out soon).

I'm a bit stumped. This doesn't seem to be a safety or performance issue but it's annoying as hell. I'd be grateful for any input anyone might have.

[dgoodhue]

I don't see the lower front control arm pancake bushing (the rear one) in your list replacement parts. A torn pancake bushing could your issues.

[Rittmeister]

Isn't that the Whiteline W53353? The round one at the back of the front control arms, that has a triangular plate holding it to the chassis? I definitely replaced that - had to have a shop press the old one out and the urethane one in. The front, pivot bushing I did not replace; I suppose it could be the issue but I haven't found much reference to anyone replacing that one.