97 Grand Prix -- "thunk" noise coming from right rear wheel area?

Mar 02, 2004 3 Replies

Hoping someone has some ideas on this..



When going over bumps in the road, my wife's 97 GP makes a "thunk" sound near the right rear wheel. We've had the car in at two different places (one private, one AAA) and neither one found anything. The private shop replaced the sway bar linkage (didn't help) and the AAA shop said the shock looked fine, was tight and not leaking. Said it certainly wasn't a safety concern, so if we could live with the noise...



The private shop did mention that part of the honeycomb from the cat converter was loose, but I have a hard time believing that's what this noise is. Seems to me a broken piece of honeycomb would make more of a rattle noise than a thunk, and probably wouldn't be very audible from inside the car.. Am I wrong on this? The car just passed emissions inspection, so it must not be a very big piece..



Any ideas what else might be causing this noise? (And no, there's nothing in the trunk.)



Thanks,



-Wrench


Might just be a stress noise from body flex. Could be noise from the RR spring where it seats around the strut / frame.

I've lived with an off & on rear end clunk for 13 years.

========= Harryface =========

1991 Pontiac Bonneville LE 3800 V6 ( C ), Black/Slate Grey _~_~_~_~277, 300 miles_~_~_ ~_~_

Usually a noise like this comes from an upper strut mount..

I have a 93 grand prix and I have had the same trouble. I noticed that one of my exhaust pipes was hanging a little low and rigged it up to where it wouldn't move anymore. This solved my problem, and it may solve yours as long as your pipes are secure enough.

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