jahoney

Hello all,

I've been hearing a pretty annoying clunking sound when going over cracks in the road/manholes/etc at a low speed (<25 mph). I thought it was suspension related, and it was riding pretty rough so I replaced the front two macpherson struts(entire assembly) and rear shock absorbers.

This didn't fix the problem and I've been driving for a year or two since then. There is also a pretty irritating vibration at higher speeds (50-80mph or so). Always thought it was the motor mounts but haven't gotten around to checking them thoroughly. Anyway, I was doing an oil change yesterday and noticed the lower mount does indeed have a cracked bushing. So I will be replacing that. But I'm wondering if there are any more?

Here is the video of the engine movement:
In the video, I start it in park, put to reverse, then give it a little juice, then in drive and same thing, while holding the brakes obviously. Does this amount of movement seem way out of line? Or should I look elsewhere for my problem? Axles?? Of course, the vibration COULD be a separate problem. Hoping not. It's not a brutal fast vibration, almost like a wobble (like a tire is way out of balance, or filled with snow/ice, which happens with these wheels frequently in winter)

For some context: Vehicle has 245k miles, last 75k have been pretty rough. Winter up here in Tahoe can be brutal on cars when you work on the mountain and have to drive the ice/snow a lot. SH-AWD does great though!

Thank you for any advice. Please watch the video. Seems like a bit much on the motor movement.

edit- only reason I even hesitate is I don't know which parts are the wear items, plus one of the mounts is like $300. I will replace what I need to, but would rather not do any good ones, unless it is recommended to just do them all. I didn't notice anything glaringly obviously bad on the passenger side round looking

Tomtwtwtw

The motor should have *some*movement even with perfect mounts - their job is to absorb that vibration and movement so you don't feel it in the car. But I can't say for sure whether what we're seeing in the video is normal or excessive. But at that mileage it certainly wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the mounts, it's just hard to say if that's the only cause. You mentioned you replaced the strut assemblies, but I would also suggest replacing the end links and sway bar bushings while you're at it (you can do this without removing the struts so no big deal). If your sway bar bushings are shot, that noise could be excessive movement of the bar itself when you hit bumps. The end links and bushings are cheap and pretty easy to do - I'd personally start there and see what kind of impact that has (if any), and then proceed with the mounts - especially the one with the cracked bushing.

jahoney

Thank you for the input. When I did the struts I did forcibly (with my hand) check the sway bar links and all seemed good. However, maybe my arms aren’t enough to produce the play I’m hearing. I also pushed tie rods and looked for any play I could find at all in the steering and suspension and couldn’t find any. Maybe I will do it anyway.

im also hesitant on just throwing parts at it — with this many miles I’m not sure how much longer that turbo will last. But I don’t want my last year(s) with her to drive me crazy if I can swap a couple parts.

Tomtwtwtw

Tie rods should be fine unless you've really curbed a wheel, and even then that would probably manifest more in an off-center steering wheel or a pull to one side. You can should be able to get end links for all 4 corners plus front and rear sway bushings for around 100 bucks off Rock Auto, so it's not a huge spend there to replace parts that tend to wear out anyway. Whatever route you go, please keep us up to date. A lot of our cars are getting up there in miles (I'm at 190k myself) so it's good to see what tends to need attention as they age out.

jahoney

I will update this as things change. But I haven’t even ordered the bad torque rod yet. Will probably order tonight but starting to think that isn’t the (biggest) problem.