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mystery clunk from '91 integra front ?

Integra has a a mystery clunk that i am not able to reproduce at will. It seems to intermittently occur under just the right conditions of slowly braking while descending a mild ramp/grade then turning right onto a flat surface/street and accelerating. Clunk occurs somewhere in between the the range of let off brake, turn and accelerate since they all occur at approx the same time.

'91 integra LS ( ~ 175,000 miles ) condition of car is ... regularly maintained , reg. oil changes, properly aged timing belt water pump, brakes look good etc., no major damage or repairs ever made. Replaced the CV joints about

5 yrs ago.

Visual inpection turns up no problems with motor mounts nor the sway bar, the strut rubber looks good. Lifted the front end of car then shook and kicked the wheels with no clunks or odd play in the various arms and joints and such ...

any ideas ?

thanks for any helpful replies robb

Reply to
robb
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Down thru the years a clunk like that usually turns out to be strut mount bushing, which means new strut mount.

Reply to
Clete

"robb" wrote in news:2fCdne06 _r0x5R_WnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

Your shake/kick test tells you nothing, since you don't have the wheels at the correct road-ready attitude.

If you're /certain/ none of the bushings have delaminated or broken (check the REAR ones as well, especially the giant ones on the trailing arm!), then... The only things I can think of that would cause such a noise are the CV joints (yes I know, but it's still possible), or a worn balljoint.

To test the CV joints, find an empty, dry parking lot. Drive in a circle with the wheel at full lock either way. Travel that circle several times. A bad CV joint will clunk or click.

To test for worn balljoints, you need to pop their tapers and wiggle them by hand.

Reply to
Tegger

This one puzzled me for a year until I got the car back from my son and had more than 10 minutes at a time to figure it out. Double-check ALL the sway bar bushings, particularly the ones at the ends of the bars. Make sure they are still there (grin). There was air where mine used to be ('91 Accord). Only certain combinations of cornering with either braking or throttle made the clunks happen. Check also the bushings under the sway bar mounts on the front crossmember.

When the car is jacked up, there is enough tension on the bar to prevent it from making any noise no matter what you do with feet or hands.

Autozone had generic replacements (sorry, Tegger, not OEM ;-) that I expect to outlast the car at this point in its life.

Reply to
JRE

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