Topic: Need help finding clunk please! *Fixed*

[AirbornBugeye]

Lets start off with the easy stuff, car is RHD, GDB, 2000 sti with 110kish.
If I say drivers side I mean the right side of the car as thats what my drivers side is, I hope thats not confusing.

Problem, my problem has been a clunk that happens sometimes but not always. It feels like its on the drivers side and I think I can feel it in the peddles. Its not that loud, but that could also be that the exhaust is pretty loud. Its been like that for a bit before all the mods we just did. I also got an alignment last week after all the mods.

My thoughts of what was wrong was ball joints, or something in the front suspension.

Last week my friend and I had a pretty great time putting on new bushings. Whiteline front roll center adjustment (taller ball joints and new tie rod ends), Whiteline anti lift kit comfort, Whiteline front control arm bushing, and Group N top hats. Car came with the pink sti shocks/ lowering springs from factory.

So we install all this and the car feels a little bit better but the clunk isnt gone, maybe its louder maybe im crazy. Its just as random as before.

With the anti lift kit you have to space out the factory u brace and we had a bolt pull some of her threads out when we got the car and there hasnt been a bolt in there for years. So my thought was maybe the loudness is because of extra space between the U and the car. I removed the U brace and its now in my backyard... no change. I replaced the axle with a used one from kijiji, one of the importers had one. Both mine and the one I put back on looked and felt fine. That felt like a waste of time.

Asking around, someone said my sway bar could be causing the clunk. I dont mind removing it but first id like to just know its installed correctly.

Any input at all or things you want me to take a picture of please feel free to ask. If I remove the sway bar and the clunk is still there then im not really sure what to do.


RH/ Drivers side



LH/ Passenger Side

[VTAKLOL]

I’m assuming you’re hearing this clunk when going over bumps? Large/small? Does it only occur at certain speeds? When turning? Need more details of the symptoms.

[AirbornBugeye]

Low speeds for the most part, as they are the easiest to feel/ hear. Speed bumps dont seem to clunk most of the time. Driving up on my curb at home to raise one or two wheels sometimes clunks. If the speed bumps are too large or too fast my exhaust might scrape so I avoid that.
Turning right seems to make it happen more often.

[STi.PHa]

You might have a bad CV axle. My forester made a clunking sound from time to time at low speed and went away after changing out the CV axle. Just a thought

[AirbornBugeye]

It seems like the problem is worse when I drive for longer. If that helps?

You might have a bad CV axle. My forester made a clunking sound from time to time at low speed and went away after changing out the CV axle. Just a thought

I did swap in a front axle but I didnt notice any change at all. Didn't get better or worse and when I had the old one out I couldn't tell if anything was wrong. Only the drives side though.

[VTAKLOL]

Bumping this back up. My car has had these same symptoms lately and after a little bit of reading, it sounds like it could be the (apparently) common “STi inverted strut clunk.” Remedies range from simply lifting up the dust boot and greasing the shaft to going as far as to disassemble the strut, clean out the old grease and repack with new stuff and reassemble. I will be attempting the former to see if it actually helps and if it does, I’ll consider doing the latter as a likely longer lasting solution later on.

[DaDuke99]

Bumping this back up. My car has had these same symptoms lately and after a little bit of reading, it sounds like it could be the (apparently) common “STi inverted strut clunk.” Remedies range from simply lifting up the dust boot and greasing the shaft to going as far as to disassemble the strut, clean out the old grease and repack with new stuff and reassemble. I will be attempting the former to see if it actually helps and if it does, I’ll consider doing the latter as a likely longer lasting solution later on.

Interesting.. I seem to have recently developed something similar, and like the video I just watched explaining what happens, it only occurs at low speeds. Might break out the grease tomorrow..

[AirbornBugeye]

Update, found the clunk. It was a bad pinch bolt. No more clunk, time to put the sway bar and u brace back on finally. Thank you all for the help and suggestions!