Cliff notes:
-Had my OEM (!) struts replaced a few months ago
-Everything was fine for a little bit, after a couple months I noticed I would get this occasional clunk noise when I would drive over speedbumps or some bumps in the road at a lower speed
-Take it back to the shop
-"There were a couple nuts that backed off a little. We tightened them back and the noise went away"
-3 days later the noise is back

If I take it back to that shop again there is no guarantee it won't do it again in another few days. Plus there is the possibility they may charge me a diagnostic fee, especially since they could say "it was fixed when you left" They did tell me they torqued it to spec. You never know with these shops...

It's only the driver's side front strut. I have no idea what nuts they are talking about as the ones on top seem to be seated just fine.
Anyone have any experience with this? I couldn't have been the only one.. Is it something I could just tighten up myself? Any pics would be helpful!

 

The shocks have to be tightened under pressure. Install the shock so you have a few threads on the bolt but not tight, then lift the car off the jack stands with the jack under the knuckle so that the weight of the car is on the knuckle. Then tighten the nut on the top and the fork. It will stay tightened. Right now you are just beating up your front end.

 

Thanks a lot for the help! But... I'm not 100% on what a lot of that is... I have zero experience working on my own struts. Does the car need to be lifted (wheel off the ground entirely) THEN put upward pressure on the knuckle? and you're talking about the mounting nuts, not the central nut, right? I'm also not sure what the fork is. Online photos aren't helping

 

Ok. I am attaching the service manual page for the instructions on how this is supposed to be done. If your shop didn't allow the weight of the car to be placed on the shock BEFORE torqueing them down they did it wrong. The same goes for the ball joints. By having the car on a floor jack stand the weight of the front end is put on the jack stand once you put a jack under the knuckle and lift the car, the car's weight is now on the shock and the bolts can be tightened if they just put the car on a lift and replaced the shock they could never preload (transfer the weight to shock) the shock and you can torque it to specs but once the car is lowered the weight of the car will cause the bolts to be loose an no longer meeting the torque spec. I recommend you print the instructions and take it in and tell them to do it correctly, that is if there is any threads left on the shock bolt.

 

thank you very much! so it's okay to lift the car right at the knuckle? Is this a good lift point for the jack?



just trying to be extra careful. Also will the wheel need to be entirely off the ground, or maybe just lifted a couple inches?

 

Yes it is fine to lift the car under the knuckle. You do want to break loose the tire lug nuts first, then lift the car, place jack stand under the car, remove the tirel, then proceed. You can use the normal lift points to place the jack stand.
You want to lift the car and put it on a jack stand for safety. You should remove the tire, once the tire is off you can put the jack under the wheel knuckle and jack it up so that it is off the jack stand, When the car is a inch higher than the jack stand it is fine, then work the lower and upper bolts. In YOUR case since they are tightened you will need to loosen the bolts shown, you do not need to remove them just make then loose. Then raise the car off the jack stand and then tighten all the bolts, honestly I have the torque tools but on these areas I use a impact wrench and make it tight.

 

Thanks a lot, man! I'll give it a shot. Part of me wonders if they just undertorqued everything... They kept lingering on "but the torque specs say..."

Also since the front driver's wheel takes a lot more weight than the passenger side, do those bolts all need to be torqued more? Just for future reference.

 

The problem with tightening these specific bolts is the when it is on a lift the weight of the front end is hanging in essence it is stretched out so you can easily torque it to spec but when the weight of the engine/transmission is is being supported by the jack under the knuckle it is compressed and if you measured the torque then it would be completely different. The top bolts and fork bolt must be tightened (along with the lower ball joint) under the load of the car. There is no need to tighten it further than the passenger side. For these bolts I usually go 10% more than the torque spec but that is me.