Right Front Suspenion clunk/thud/noise - help me diagnosis?

[zags]

Hiya All,

Been a while since I've been on here. Tried doing a search to help me figure out what is going on, but wanted to see what others think might be going on.

My 09 M35 has about 94k miles on it, I had the bearings looked at about 5k miles ago and was told they were fine.

But basically when I ever I go over a small bump/hole, I hear what sounds like a clunking/thud noise, definitely from the right front suspension. I seem to only be able to hear/feel it at slower speeds, (3-15mph or so). Going any faster than that, don't seem to notice it.

Based on the other folks having suspension noises around the same 90k - 100k miles, I'm thinking I should just have all the bushing replaced.

[zags]

BTW on D2's which I had installed at about 65k

[Ilya]

My bet is the sway bar links.

[zags]

^ that's my inclination as well...if I am going to go ahead and replace a bunch of bushings/end links, while it is being done is there a relatively improved "upgrade" of components I should think about doing at the same time?

[Ilya]

You might look into energy suspension stuff...but honesty OE replacements should be fine in most applications.

[bluedevil30]

I would check the strut/shock mounts as well to see if they are blown.

[fooitm35x]

Control arms? I had these clunks and once the control arms were replaced they were gone.

[Ilya]

Control arms? I had these clunks and once the control arms were replaced they were gone.

They might have replaced your sway bar links too since they are attached to the lower control arm. I'd change control arm after replacing the $25 sway bar links though...almost as a last resort.

[zags]

cool, i'll take a look, any suggestion on where I should look to source these parts? Should Amazon have these for a relatively competitive price?

[MOWellsinVA]

I bought new bushings from Amazon, and they had the best prices that I could find for good quality stuff, like Moog and Raybestos.

[zags]

Quick update, the noise I was hearing was apparently my D2 CO that blewout, and a not long after, the left front CO followed suit...I've ordered the cartridge replacements from D2, at $130 a pop.

[Ilya]

How many miles on them?

[zags]

Not more than right around 30k.

[zags]

quick update -

BOTH of my CO's had blown, the noise i was hearing was from the right front CO that had already blown...the left went out too long after that...

It was represented that I was buying the RWD D2 CO's from some prior FreshAlloy vendor, whom I noticed is apparently not around anymore...but when my mechanic was installing the new ones, he mentioned that the old ones were significantly shorter than the replacements i bought (directly from D2). When I contacted D2, they believe that I likely had the AWD version struts in there...

see the difference:

[Ilya]

That's odd indeed.