Front Suspension noise clunk

[ElanS2]

I have just changed the front struts for all KYB. Only the springs are original. 

The sway bar rubber bushings are new. Daily driver, Turbo wagon, 2007 210000kms.

Now I get clunks from the front when going over small bumps even at low speed.

Is it possible that the original springs are tired and should have been replaced with everything else?

Could the noise be coming from the steering ? I get no feel from the steering. All seems to be tight. The rack is leaking.

I have retorqued all the major bolts. ( 2 strut to knuckle, one at top of shock, three small ones at the top of strut to body ).

[KZJonny]

Ball joints, tie rod ends?

Did you do a wheel check for all of that when doing the struts? Sometimes if they are tired, all it takes is being moved around a whole lot and out of their 'normal' position for them to finally call it a day and start making noise. As would occur a little while changing struts.

Unless your springs are broken, I sort of doubt it would be them making noise, the car weights enough they're under compression all the time.

Edited August 6 by KZJonny

[xt2005bonbon]

New tophats?

[Max Capacity]

Sway bar ends links have been the known cause of that noise for a long time. The rears may do it too. Been there done that.

 

[ElanS2]

Thanks for your comments.

I suspected them so I completly removed the rear ones and there was no change so I put them back. At the front the sway bar links seem to be in good shape too.

The trailing arm bushing, where it connects to the bracket which  in turn connects to the body with three bolts, is the source of some noise. It will be changed in two weeks along with others at the rear end. This particular bracket and it's three bolts are subject to severe rusting. That is another story.

Before  changing the struts the front drivers side  was noisy, less than a loud clunk, but still audible.

When I examined the old strut the cause was evident: the yellow rubber cushion at the top was disintigrating and the bellows was loose. That noise disappeared with the new strut, but then a louder clunk became evident. Yesterday I realised that the new bellows was no longer attached to the new yellow bump stop. The tie wrap around the bellows was not able to compress the bellows enough to grip the bump stop. The solution was to remove the tie wrap, cut slots in the bellows to allow some take-up when tightening a new tie-wrap.  That seems to be working. The situation will be tested soon when I make a 1000km trip to Montreal.

Thanks for your interest in my situation.