[hikingnut62]

I've had this clunking sound for about a month now that seems to come from the trunk area (in particular, the passenger side of the trunk). It doesn't happen all the time. It can happen when driving over a manhole cover or making a turn, but it's not every time I drive over a manhole cover or turn.

I started trouble-shooting by crawling under the car and pulling on the sway bars and springs to try to duplicate. No sound.

Tried pushing and pulling on the exhaust system in the rear. No sound.

Tried bouncing the rear corner of the car on both sides, as well as opening the rear passenger doors and bouncing the car. No sound.

I removed everything in the trunk I thought might cause the noise. Still heard the clunking.

On one Honda forum, a few people with this problem said they replaced the bushings of the sway bar that runs between the rear tires. Just did that today but still heard clunking.

I removed everything out of the trunk today and drove around the neighborhood circle (about 3/4 of a mile). We have quite a few manhole covers in our neighborhood and I hit them all. I might make an entire loop with no noise, but then the next loop I hear it once.

I pulled the rear seat down and repeated. Still heard the sound. Verified my rear speakers were secure and the scissor jack was secure in its compartment. Checked the trunk to see if anything was loose there (like the thin bars that help close the trunk. STILL heard the noise.

Today on this forum I read where some people fixed this by tightening the nuts on all the sway bars. I plan on doing that this week. If that doesn't do it, can anyone suggest what else might be causing this intermittent sound? It sounds like what a metal can (like Fix-A-Flat or De-icer) would sound like if it fell over and hit metal.

This is a 2004 Honda Accord will all standard/stock suspension.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[TX Accord]

Jack up your right side by the back tire. Once the tire is off the ground, grab the tire at the 6 and 12 o'clock positions. Try to lift up and push the upper part of the tire in toward the center of the car.

There's an upper ball joint there that will wear out and cause a big clunk sound when you go across bumps. You're testing to see if that's loose.

 

[hikingnut62]

Good suggestion but couldn't duplicate the sound from either rear tire. While I had the car jacked up, I confirmed all the nuts/bolts were tight on all of the sway bars (I guess that's what the smaller bars near the tire are called). I can't figure out for the life of me what is causing this noise. I heard it several times on a short trip to the grocery store today. Driving me crazy. I think I've exhausted all my options and will need to drop this off at our mechanic soon.

I'm going to hop in the trunk and have my wife ride around our neighborhood and try to isolate where it's coming from. I'll update afterwards.

Andy

 

[hikingnut62]

Today I had my wife sit in the back seat and we circled our neighborhood at lease three times and did a very short road trip in and out of the neighborhood to get some sharper turns in and we hear NOTHING! My wife suggest maybe the bushing seated better due to the warm weather (it had been in the 50s Monday when I replace them and 50s again yesterday, but was up to 70 today). I have no clue. Seems like it could be possible. As much as we drove around the neighborhood today, we would have heard it. I'll post back in a few days unless I hear the noise sooner.

 

[mtts60]

Maybe putting her in the back seat changed the weight dynamic of the car (be careful how you tell her that).

 

[hikingnut62]

LOLOLOL Great thought. She only weighs about 115, so I don't think I'd get smacked for making a comment like that. We went back in the car today. She sat in the same spot in the car as yesterday as well as in the front passenger seat. This time we heard it no matter where she was. Only thing I can think of that's left is the shocks.

I called our mechanic today and they told me to come in at 5pm one day and they'd go for a ride with me and put it in the shop if we can duplicate it (which I'm pretty confident I'll be able to). I'm going up there Monday. I'll update once this is resolved.

 

[hikingnut62]

Well, for some damn reason I have been unable to duplicate the clunking sound the past two days (with temps in the 50s). I won't be taking it to my mechanic until it starts happening more consistently. As they said "Ya can't fix what ya can't hear". I'll update if/when things change. This one has me scratching my head.

Anyone else have this problem just "disappear"? My gut says it will come back. At least now I know what strut to buy (KYB). A lot of people in forums say these are good struts. And tirerack.com has a set for $322. I can do the work myself based on videos I've watched.

 

[qman]

Check rockauto.com

Jack up the rear end and see if you can move things with your hand and get the clunk.

 

[hikingnut62]

@qman I did do that about a week ago. Pulled/pushed on all the bars around the wheel and even tried moving the wheel side to side and up and down but never could duplicate the clunking noise. I even verifed all the bolts were tight on all the bars (are the small bars also called sway bars??).

 

[Yal]

Im having a similar issue. On mine i think its the upper shock mount, im going to try and tighten the bolts on top and see if that changes anything.

 

[haze5736]

I had a similar noise that turned out to be the upper shock mount on the driver's side. The shocks were due to be replaced anyway. After I changed them the noise went away.

 

[Shrimpy]

Mine started doing this EXACT same thing a week or so after I did my rear brakes. Mine is more of a rattling sound, like the jack or lug wrench is loose. I tightened out the jack so that it holds itself in place, removed the lug wrench and the hook thing, but I still get the rattle. I haven't had time to attack it but will be doing so tomorrow. Like Hickingnut, mine is definitely on the passenger rear. I'm thinking upper strut/shock mount.

 

[losiracer1987]

it might be your strut mount bushings on top of the shock. There are two per shock that can wallow out and wear out over time and get compressed, so when a moderate bump happens, it'll make a knocking noise and/or rattle.

 

[Shrimpy]

Since I chimed in on this thread (sorry hikingnut62), I just wanted to follow up with what I found was causing the rattling noise in the passenger rear side of my sedan. It was a loose caliper bracket !!! I guess my son was worrying more about his date that day we were doing the rear brakes and didn't tighten the brackets completely. In fact, I was able to turn them (top and bottom bolt) by hand!! I thought the calipers appeared to be moving slightly as I was removing the tire, that's what caused me to check the bracket bolts. After tightening the bolts on the bracket, I went ahead and removed the rear seat to check the bolts on the upper strut (thanks losiracer1987). The strut bolts were tight and showed no movement. I went ahead and drove the car to make sure the rattling was gone with the rear seat removed, NOT A SOUND!!!! Good luck to everyone trying to track down their rattle.

 

[hikingnut62]

@Shrimpy That I could understand lol yikes!. That's definitely not the case with my car. Haven't touched my brakes.

I took it to my mechanic Tuesday and had him ride with me. He heard the clunk several times. He put it up on the rack and looked all around (by the rear passenger tire), bounced the car (as I had done) but couldn't duplicate it and didn't see and reason for the noise.

The next day, I pulled my scissor jack out just to eliminate that final thing (everything else was out of the trunk) but the clunking noise was STILL there.

The mechanic didn't think it was a strut, so I may just have them replace the smaller "bars" around the rear tires (sway bar link?). They're only $32 each. Start with the cheapest parts and work up. I'm out of ideas and need to start doing something to fix this.

 

[hikingnut62]

I had my wife drive the car around our neighborhood while I laid in the trunk. Never heard the clunking, so we thought maybe my weight (155 lbs.) was throwing things off, so I sat up front and looped our neighborhood again. That time we heard it (and a few times it sounded like it was coming in the area to the right of the front passenger seat, right in the middle of the car. So, on the 3rd loop, I had my weight on the passenger front seat, but had stretched my body to the back (so that the majority of my weight was on the passenger front seat and I was supporting myself by just putting my hand near where the top of the back seat rests). As we drove around, I told my wife to say when she heard it. Every time she heard it, I never heard it in the back (and I had the back seat down at that point and could have easily heard any noise in the trunk), but to her it sounded like it was coming mainly from the front passenger wheel area.

I'm going to pull the front passenger tire tomorrow (weather permitting) and see if I see anything there. I think I have have been looking in the wrong area the whole time and the noise just "seemed" to be coming from the rear. From videos I just watched about the front sway bar link, I should be able to push/pull the sway bar and easily tell it's loose (and hear the noise as well). Could also be the rubber bushings on the long sway bar that runs nearly the width of the car between the front tires.

I'll post back here once I've done that.

 

[hikingnut62]

Well, this probably isn't good lol I pulled the front passenger tire today and saw the following issue with a "boot" on part of the suspension. It looks very similar on the driver's side. I tugged on a few other areas, including a small sway bar and the long sway bar and didn't feel any looseness or hear anything. I'm running the car over to the mechanic today to see if they think this could be the cause.

Is that part called the chassis control arm or lower control arm? I'm seeing it called different names. It's like a 3-armed hunk of metal connecting to three points up front (the last pic may give you a better idea of its shape). It looks like a real beast to replace too. Not something I'm even considering doing myself if this is the cause.

 

[TX Accord]

That's your lower control arm. I got mine from Rock Auto. That cracked bushing is called the compliance bushing. While this is apart, check the lower ball joints. If the ball joints need replaced, I would definitely go OEM for those. I'd also check the tie rod ends to see if they're loose.

If the control arm looks like this on one side, check the driver's side too.

 

[hikingnut62]

Could that be the cause of the clunking noise? The "compliance bushing" looks identical on the driver's side. In an exploded diagram of that arm, I see the three bushing. The guy at my local Honda dealer parts dept. said those can be replaced. Is it OK to just replace the bushings or is it recommended to buy the whole arm (which is around $250 on the popular Honda parts sites like bkhondaparts.com and hondaparts now. The dealer wants $386 lol

I plan on getting this done asap, but is there any risk driving it short distances for now?

Going to take it to a mechanic today to see if they believe this is causing the problem and get an estimate while I'm there. After just watching a Youtube video on replacing this, definitely not something I want to tackle. I know my limitations 😄

Thanks,

Andy

 

[TX Accord]

You could replace just the bushings, but they have to be pressed out and then the new ones pressed in. Looks like the lower control arms are the same for all V6 cars so then a different part number for the 4cyls should fit all of the 4cyl cars.

I got the Mevotech lower control arms from Rock Auto. They're around $76/each. That could definitely cause a clunk. Probably the biggest risk to safe driving is when the lower ball joints go bad. The pics you see where it looks like the suspension collapsed and the wheel goes cock-eyed are usually from a lower ball joint completely breaking. Bad lower ball joints are usually ones that squeak or cause a loud metallic clanging sound as you try to turn at slow speeds.

If you just have cracked compliance bushings, you shouldn't have to park the car immediately, but I'd address those soon.