OK, so I just picked up an '86 Jetta GLi Wolfsburg Edition, unknown mileage (PO claims it's around 169k miles, odometer reads 151k but doens't always work.) On the test drive around the parking lot, there was a very persistent, annoying "clunk-clunk, clunkety-clunk" that happened as I went over bumps and ripples in the pavement. It actually sounds like it's coming from the passenger side rear pillar (aka C-pillar), but I suspect it's really at the top of the strut on that side (I could hear something was a bit loose when I put my weight on that corner of the car.)
I pulled the stiff shaped-carpet liner in the trunk away from the strut, and it looked OK to my untrained eye (but this was a very brief look.
Any common causes for a clunk at the top of the rear strut? Any cheap, quick fixes?
What years of cars have struts that would fit in this 1986 Jetta? Would Golf parts fit too?
Thanks!
Chub