GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

If I put the car up on the lift and hit the bottom of the tire with my knee I hear the clunk, the boot is ripped on the shock, but i it still rebounds properly so i think the shock is ok... probably just the upper strut mount?

Any lose lugs?? I swapped my moms summers for her winters and about a month later (a few weeks ago) I borrowed the car to go snowboarding (exceptionally nasty snow day) and I started to hear this clunk from the driver rear... sure enough I could rock the wheel when I pushed on it.. I had forgotten to re-torque after 500ish miles after the swap..

Hey I hit a brutal frost heave two days ago and now i have thing same thing. Shock rebounds ok, handles ok, just now when i get wheel travel on the right side I hear a soft clunking. Shock mount?

Grab a wrench and try to tighten EVERY bolt and nut on the strut assembly starting with the 3 under the hood. Grab everything and tug'n'push to trace it back to the source of the problem. Check the balljoints too!Remember, (with the wheel off the ground) with your hands at 12 and 6 in the tire pulling back and forth, movement = wheel bearing. Hands at 9 and 3 pulling back and forth, movement = tie rods.

Well I am a technician and I see a lot of suspension and alignment work. First off its harder to help you with out driving the vehicle, but ill try for ya. Most common clunk in the front is sway links on almost every vehicle. pull up and down on the sway bar end any popping or movement in the link can cause a clunk. If you take your car and drive 30-50 mph and swerve left and right you will here click/clunk on one or both sides. Checking for play in the wheel is a good place to start as well. if there is any play in the wheel up and down left or right or diagonally parts will need to be replaced. strut mounts don't usually go bad. there is a couple ways to tell if you've ruled out others but start with checking sway links and play in the tires up front. whats the mileage on this vehicle?

I've had this same problem for as long as I've owned my '06 Vibe. I only get the clunk when the temperature is below 40 (Fahrenheit) or so and I've pretty much narrowed it down to the sway-bar bushings... as it seems to be the only thing that makes sense. Everything else is tight and it seems logical that the bushings could be affected by the cold. Plus, I can "feel" the clunk very distinctly in the floor boards, right above the sway-bar body mounts.I liberally soaked the area around the bushings with some WD-40 once last winter and it seemed to fix the issue for a few days.Aside from being highly annoying, do you think there is any inherent safety issue here?

Quote, originally posted by ajconover »Aside from being highly annoying, do you think there is any inherent safety issue here?If it's just the sway bar then no. Buy some polyurethane bushings and make the annoyances go away (and stiffen up the handling, too)!!

ive had the same issue on my front passanger side this winter, which is the first winter with my car lowered with tein ss struts and springs.ive lifted the car and checked everything along with two mechanics which have found nothing wrong. it turns out its just a temperature thing as long as its warm out or has been sitting in a heated garage the noise doesn't happen until the car gets cold again. i haven't found an exact temperature the noise goes away and comes back, but with spring coming i should be able to get a number soon.

ok well i do have to confirm that the noise has gone away in 38F temps. so i think ajconover may be correct about it caused by the sway bar bushing. BoostFrenzy let us know if the noise goes away with warmer weather coming.

hard to tell with out looking at it but in the dealership we have seen a few rear control arm bushing tear and pop out causeing a clunk. its not hard to check eithershould be able to see it just looking through the wheel well.

Reviving an old thread. Shame on me.I just had similar clunk in front end of car from passenger front strut but not cold out at all. 70 degrees. Turned out my front passenger strut mount deteriorated and the metal that holds the top hat for the spring became detached from the rubber in the strut mount. Almost every piece of rubber in the front of the car is falling apart after 127,000 miles. Strut still works perfect with no signs of leaks. Boot is tore up. New strut mount and car feels great again. No more little shake to the steering wheel while driving. Keeping an eye on the drivers side now. Have the spare for that when I have time. Strut mounts for the front aren't cheap. $61 at O'reilly's. Nobody else had one in stock.

Awesome!! glad I've seen this thread. I've recently been hearing a clunking comming from the right front passenger side of my car. It seems to happen when the suspension is doing an up and down motion like when going over a pothole or speed bump, or whenever the suspension travel is being used to the max. My first suspicion was that one of the sway bar end-links had some loose. My car has lowering sprigns installed as well as a front sturt brace so I'm sure theres been a lot more stress than normal put on everything which could have cause something to come loose. The sway bar endlinks will be the first thing I check. Thanks Stockintoshockin

Keep us updated! I just had Tein H-Techs put on last night and I am also getting a clunk from the same R front area.

Turns out the installer forgot to tighten the sway bar links. All fixed!