clunk noise from front suspension?

[frustrated]

When I drive over a bump with my VT wagon V6, with either front tire, I get a clunking noise coming somewhere from the front of the car. I can't tell whether it is left, right, or centre.

I've had this problem for a while. I replaced the left and right engine mounts on the weekend, which was a bugger of a job (I couldn't remove one nut and had to take the engine mounting plate off the driver's side - getting it back on again was a nightmare), and this may have helped a bit. The old mounts were certainly stuffed. Earlier I had replaced the steering rack, and that made a great difference to the handling, but made no difference to the clunk. And the sway bar struts are new with good rubbers and correctly tightened (I think, although I find this a bit hard to tell). I've also recently replaced the shocks. The wheel bearings feel OK. Wheel alignment has been professionally checked. I also tightened the 8 nuts on the two strengthening plates towards the rear of the engine bay.

So, how to diagnose the problem? If I jack the front of the car up, can I hit something with a mallet to work out what is wrong?

I have a vague feeling that the noise is similar to how it sounded when the sway bar strut rubbers were stuffed...

oh, and I should mention that this is independent of steering position. The clunk happens when going straight ahead or around a corner.

[lumina01]

probley the link pins?

[frustrated]

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess that a "link pin" is what I called a "sway bar strut". I replaced these with nice Z-shaped ones a while ago. The rubbers on one side are a bit cut into by the washers, but they look OK.

[GMMAD]

could be
link pins
caster bushes front or rear
strut tops

[dynoryder]

i would say strutops cuz you did the links


but check ball joints to and as for wheel bearings i tell evry one they are the hardest car to find bearing nosie

[frustrated]

Thanks for the ideas GMMAD and dynoryder. I think the strut tops are fine (I had them out when I replaced the shocks, and they looked OK). I might wait for the problem to get worse, so hopefully the cause will be more obvious.

[Dave VT99]

Maybe the backing plate on the bearings

[Dave VT99]

Do you get a slight rattle when you are going about 100km/hr from the same side