I’ve got a ‘93 S13 with aftermarket tension rods, tie rods, and a lower control arms (one side aftermarket, one side OEM replacement, one of the new ones broke on me later and I was stranded and the shop could only get a factory one) that were installed after hopping a curb at 10 mph. Probably got ~30k of mileage on them now. These were professionally installed and have been aligned several times. Since installing those components, the car had occasionally made a rather loud and unsettling thunking noise on really hard turns. It only thunks once and won’t do it again unless you turn hard the other direction. Initially I was told it was “probably the pillowball changing direction” and was nothing to worry about. Recently it has become much, MUCH more common and the amount of turning force needed to cause the sound is greatly reduced to just about anything more than a gradual turn. I’ve also noticed the sound when I hit bumps/potholes at certain angles and now and then on braking, especially when I am backing up in full steering lock. The only other item of note I can think of is that my caster is out of spec low (about 5.5° I believe) because it won't adjust back in spec with the aftermarket tension rods. Any thoughts/help on this problem?

I had a similar noise but it only occured during sharp low speed turns and whenever i would come to a stop while on the brakes it would make a clunk. I thought it was coming from the front end and I replaced everything and it still would clunk.

But then I bought a new catback to replace my old s*** one and that fixed the clunk lol so im not sure if thats your problem to. But I happened to fix mine upon luck, I would NEVER of guessed my old catback was causing it.

Also, it could possibly be your steering rack bushings. Might wanna check those out.

The sound didn't bother me so much until it became so frequent. For the most part it is just a sound, I also cannot barely even feel it in the steering or ride. The catback being the problem is indeed strange, I would have never imagined.

Same here, Im still not even sure what part of the old catback was causing the clunking noise but the noise disappeared after I got rid of it.
You could replace your steering rack bushings with some poly urethane ones to see if that fixes it. I got mine for 20 shipped and although my old bushings werent to bad I still noticed a big improvement in the steering feel.

EDIT: The reason Im recommending the steering rack bushings is because I read on another forum that if those are wore out then they can cause a clunking noise. I actually ordered the bushings to fix my clunking noise at the same time I ordered the catback but I installed the catback first and noticed the noise was gone but I threw in the bushings anyways.

Wait, do you have coilovers?

I accidentally set mine once so the spring was basically floating in between the collars with no preload, it was loose and free to move around. Lol, stupid me. But when I went over bumps, it would sometimes make a crazy loud clunk noise until the next day I removed the wheel and saw my stupidity.

But if you don't have coils, my post is completely irrelevant, lol.

I don't have coil-overs but one of the struts has been replaced with OEM. This was done after the big front end repair and it was already making the sound before that (although not as bad as now). Which reminds me, the control arm replacement I mentioned was also after it was already making the sound, so that should pretty much rules it out.

Maybe the front end was already tweaked before the "big" repair and something was already rubbing? And then the accident just compounded the occurrence of the noise.

What brand are these parts? My guess would be that one or both of those are binding which is weird b/c 1.) you said they were professionally installed and 2.) you're not on the ground with coilovers putting both said suspension parts out of efficiency range.

I drove the car for about a year and a half before I had all these parts installed, I don't remember this particular noise in that time. But I supposed it's possible that new parts in a tweaked frame could bring problems out of the woodwork.

The suspension parts are all from SPL.

Well, the noise in the front of my suspension magically came back today. So neither the steering rack bushings or the new catback fixed it like I thought. I did figure out that the noise only comes from the driver side when a heavy load is put on it. So Im still trying to figure it out what is causing it. If I do find out I will post up for you.

Hey man just though I would let you know that I finally figured out my problem. I got pissed off about that noise so I retorqued every bolt on my front suspension today and the noise was still there.

So I pulled off my front bumper and started checking around and it turned out it was a f*** 12mm socket that I lost a few months ago. Some how that damn thing fell and rolled into my bumper support so everytime I would brake or turn it would roll around and make a clunking noise. lol man wtf is the chance of that happening.

ScrapnSidwayz wrote:Hey man just though I would let you know that I finally figured out my problem. I got pissed off about that noise so I retorqued every bolt on my front suspension today and the noise was still there.

So I pulled off my front bumper and started checking around and it turned out it was a f**king 12mm socket that I lost a few months ago. Some how that damn thing fell and rolled into my bumper support so everytime I would brake or turn it would roll around and make a clunking noise. lol man wtf is the chance of that happening.

wow, that is random!
I hope mine turns out to be something like that.

Have you regreased any of the bushings/pillowballs yet? It's a good idea to do that once a year or so. I'd check that and go over everything with a torque wrench first.