[bcgreen]

I replaced most of the front end suspension components myself on my 02 Accord 2 years ago including both control arms, tie rods, ball joints, and sway bar bushings. At the time, the vehicle had a lot of noises - bushings shot, control arms rusting through, etc...since replacing the parts, the ride is appreciably better. The washboard feeling is now gone, but I do have a persistent popping noise coming from the front end, on both sides of the car. The noise only occurs when: accelerating from a stop, braking, and especially when both braking and cornering (driving through a parking lot for instance).

I think its either the struts (or their mounts) or the radius rod bushings. I've never seen any leaking from the struts however and the car doesn't have much bounce when going over bumps. I also tried rocking the car with the hood open so that I could see if the strut mounts were shot - nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They are original OEM. Is there a way to test the radius rod bushings? I was also told that it might be "spring bind" - how would I check for that?

TIA for any help!

 

[DonutLimo]

When my radius rod bushings went to hell I could see the wheel move fore and aft when torquing lugs. You could also jack up and pry LCA to get the same. When I finally replaced them they were completely squished and distorted looking compared to the new ones. It helped my alignment and weird steering. Its a little bit of a bear to change the first time from what I remember but no need for special tools. I haven't heard of spring bind, whatever that does. And there was no noise before or after the job FWIW.

 

[bcgreen]

When my radius rod bushings went to hell I could see the wheel move fore and aft when torquing lugs. You could also jack up and pry LCA to get the same. When I finally replaced them they were completely squished and distorted looking compared to the new ones. It helped my alignment and weird steering. Its a little bit of a bear to change the first time from what I remember but no need for special tools. I haven't heard of spring bind, whatever that does. And there was no noise before or after the job FWIW.

I feel a little illiterate here, but fore and aft? Problem presents itself when torquing using regular hand tools, or with an impact gun?

My alignment is perfect and the steering is fine aside from the popping noise. It seems to be coming from both sides of the car. I don't recall this sound previously, but at the time most suspension parts were completely worn out and it had many noises.

Spring bind: What Is Spring Bind? - Raceland

I don't have aftermarket coils/struts, but perhaps I didn't reassemble it correctly. Not sure how I could have messed it up though.

 

[lothian]

You might looking into purchasing a handy tool called ChassisEAR. It is purpose designed for this very sort of thing: ferreting out the location of scroinks, kerflunkles, zrippumfs and other Don Martin'esque onomatopoeia that emanate from the dark recesses of your suspension. Basically, its a microphone (or many) that you stick in some area where you suspect a noise to originate. As you drive around it records the unpleasant racket your car makes, thereby assisting in identifying and confirming the source. The thing is a wee pricey. But then so is firing a parts cannon at the your suspension by replacing each component in the wistful pursuit of a quiet ride.

 

[DonutLimo]

I feel a little illiterate here, but fore and aft? Problem presents itself when torquing using regular hand tools, or with an impact gun?

Breaker bar or torque wrench, impactor isn't in my toolbox yet.

When I would torque or loosen my front lugs when the car was on the ground and held by ebrake, I could see the wheel move fore and aft at least 1/2" with the wrench action. That's definitely not normal and affects the toe when driving. One side was worse than the other so it was almost like torque steer under acceleration but really due to toe-in.