Hey guys - looking for a community diagnosis for a weird set of circumstances. Here are my symptoms:

1. While hitting some pot holes I get a clunking like the brake pads are loose, I say the brakes because the noise does not happen if the brakes are applied.
2. There is slight wheel shimmy on the highway, this is happening less since all the fixes (see below).
3. The car is pulling pretty hard to the left in the left lane, and slightly left in the middle and right lanes (3 lane highway).

Fixes that have been done recently, some of these may or may have not been coincidental or related to the above symptoms but never-the-less are possibly causing them.

1. Front lower control arm bushings have been replaced
2. Front rotors have been replaced (pads reused, Brembo)
3. Both front endlinks were replaced, driver's side was shot.
4. Car has been aligned twice so far.
5. New tires mounted and balanced a couple weeks ago.
6. New passenger axel seal a few months ago (dealership)
7. New rear rotors and pads, Nov 16' (dealership)

A visual inspection of the suspension parts hasn't turned up anything out of the ordinary such as bent suspension components or leaking shocks. Anyone have any ideas? My TLS currently has 212k miles.

 

Can you please post alignmentsheet?

Did you use OEM LCA bushings?

How are ball joints


How many miles since those things above were done?

 

Yes, I can get it up here as soon as I get home from work. I used OEM bushings. The ball joints looked ok.

Less than 500 miles since the bushings, rotors, endlinks, tires and alignments have been done.

 

Did you do the ol' "grab the rotor from the 12 and 6 position to see if there's any play" move when testing?

 

Try that. My bet is on a bad ball joint.

 

I did. There wasn't any play that I noticed. Although I wouldn't discount me doing it wrong or being dumb.

Edit, the clunking though...why would it stop when I apply the brakes. Unless you think that it's a separate issue.

 

Here's the second alignment printout, sorry for the wrinkles. My 2 year old got a hold of it.

 

Sounds like it could be an axle to me. Potentially a worn inner joint on one of the axles.

Doesn't seem like it would be any bushings on the LCA if you had it replaced recently. End links can be ruled out as well since they were replaced also. If you had the rotors replaced, and you notice it goes away during braking, then it's not brake pulsation.

Is the shimmy you mention only under acceleration? That's typically a symptom of a bad axle.

However, if it is not the axles, my other thoughts would be struts (clunking if they are bad) or possibly worn bushings on the upper control arm.

 

The shimmy happens during highway driving accelerating or not.

 

This car has alot of torque steer. Check tire pressures if your alignment is okay.
you will need to look more into bushings and shocks + shock mounts for the noise and instability. Check your stabalizer links as well. Engine mounts can be a factor. Check brakes to make sure they aren't sticking.

 

So I took it over to Hamilton Honda and had it diagnosed, they ended up realigning it, re-balancing the tires and moving my left front tire to the rear pass. Why? because the wheel is bent.

Things I've learned: I'm not taking it to the shop that I had gone to before Hamilton Honda, which is a shame because I've been going there since High School...apparently the quality of service has gone down a lot over the years.

Everything else Hamilton Honda found:

• The endlinks that the other shop just installed they stripped out the allen key holes.
• The front sway bar bushings are worn, which they say could be causing my clunking when hitting bump completely ignoring the fact that i stated that the clunking doesn't happen when i apply the brakes. $133
• The side and front motor mounts are broken $327 & $411 respectively
• They say the power steering pump is leaking (needs replacement) quoted $653 for just this. Ya right.
• Also quoted $774.98 for the timing belt package, which seems like it has gone up.

 

The clunking noises that I had were eliminated after my side and front motor mounts were replaced. This may be the cause of your clunking as well. Where are you from in NJ? I have a guy in Cherry Hill area that replaced my front and side motor mounts for about $150 labor.

 

about 25 mins from cherry hill