martay_guy

My 02 ES 300 is experiencing a clunking noise in the front end.

It has been a very reliable car, I am the 2nd owner, purchased the car in may, 2006 with 92k miles on it, and it now has 183k miles. The car has been meticulously maintained every 5k with scheduled services. There have been no major problems, except for an electrical short a few years ago that burned out teh battery and starter ($700).

I would like to keep the car for at least another 5-6 years barring catastrophe.

I was told by the Lexus dealer that it needed a right front strut mount/bearing and a sway bar link. The struts look fine. I bought the parts and had them installed for a total of about $250. However, the clunking noise is continuing.

Another mechanic told me that I need both right and left front control arms and bushings to the tune of $450. he said the bushings look dry-rotted. The control arms look fine, but accoridng to the mechanic, the bushings cannot be repalced exclusive of the control arms.

I also need to get the timning belt/water pump changed soon. It was changed at 92k.

A few questions for those out there who may know:

-Does the control arm/bushing/clunking problem sound common for a car with this mileage? Is $450 a decent deal?

Is it dangerous to drive the vehicle with bad front control arm bushings?

-Any suggestions regarding the timing belt/water pump service?

LeX2K

Suspension noises are common with a higher mileage car like yours. I am surprised the sway bar links did not fix the problem, were they actually replaced? The control arm bushings can be replaced instead of the entire control arm, but that requires them to be removed and pressed in, which takes time. Unless you can do it yourself, you are probably just better off to replace the whole unit. But I would tend to think the upper strut mount is the culprit instead of the control arm bushings, but that is just a guess.

On the timing belt, get that replaced right away. These engines are interference engines, so if the belt breaks, $$$$.

funcrusher

I have an 02 and it also makes a clunking noise. Do you have a video of this? I wonder if its the same problem as mine

martay_guy

Thanks for the feedback!

Anyone know someone in the Pittsburgh, PA area who can do this cheap?

pauloil

might be the other side's strut mount: often they are replaced in pairs. if possible try putting a large wrench on the top of the strut and see how much it turns: shouldn't turn much. end link same: do both. swaybar bushings can clunk. the CA bushings are impt to your tires.

yeldogt

At that mileage any of the joints and or bushings could be going.


Whenever you have a problem like this and you are planning to keep the car it is best to just bite the bullet and fix the car correctly.

You should have replaced both struts and whatever else was loose - The one side was already apart? Fix it once and be done with it -- enjoy a safe quiet trouble free front end or fix it three times for twice the price.

BLexodus

iTrader: (1)

I know lexus does not make many bushings as a separate part - many people think that they did this on purpose to get you yo buy the more expensive part with it. I went to autozone and they sell just the bushings for around $10. There are multiple threads about people replacing just the bushings, just do a search under suspension noise or just bushing.

Your struts are probably fine, but the strut top mounts can go bad and those are not easy or cheap to replace. From my undestanding the noises can be caused by strut mounts, control arm bushings, swar bar bushings, or the sway bar link bushings.

VanCityLS4

iTrader: (1)

I bought control arm bushings from Energy. Front and rear, 8 or 10 piece total was $100. Might as well upgrade...

alloychild

I also had terrible noises in my front end. 99 es300 with 126,000. I just replaced all 4 shocks and struts with monroe quick struts and replaced sway arm links and sway bar bushings. Sounds and rides a lot better but I am still getting noises in the front end that are driving me crazy. These noises were probably there all along but I didn't hear them because the strut mounts were so bad and so much louder. I am bound to find the problem so I will post my findings. My next check this week is everything control arms. If that doesn't work then I may need new motor/transmission mounts. Either way, I love this car and can't wait to have a quiet smooth ride again

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

^ you and tens of others have tried, myself included. This is an endless quest.... sorry. I replaced almost all of my suspension and have always had the noise, only 'original' components left on mine are the rear trailing arms... ALL else is new.

tomf

Ditto. I've given up trying to fix run-of-the-mill front end suspension noises. I have 2 99 ES300s. Even after replacing all of the front end suspension, the front end noises persist. On my son's car a 95 Camry V6, a poor man's ES300, one of the control arm bushings failed. It was clear that it was no run-of-the-mill clunk. Once I heard it, the car was parked until fixed.

alloychild

Yeah I think for now I am going to leave it alone. I have checked everything and I can't find any issues. Replacing struts/mounts and all that made it sound a lot better but I still get an intermittent front end noise. I disconnected the strut from the wheel and moved the whole thing up and down by hand quickly to see if the control arms made any noise and they were silent. I guess anything is possible though. Maybe smooth motions don't create noise but fast jerks do.

It is a really really strange problem that if I don't ignore will probably drive me crazy. Big bumps, no noise. Big dips, no noise, no clunks. Small little washboard bumps, I get a strange metallic rattle in front end and occasionally a clunk/clank.
Also, it's strange, when I hear the noise (when I happen to hit just the right bump while going slow), the sound comes after the "bump, bump" from the tires. Really weird. It's like I hit the bump and get a normal "bump, bump" sound (totally normal sound) and then a split second after the bump bump I get a metallic clunk/creak.
It makes me think it may not be the suspension and then again I don't know what to think. I may not ever figure this thing out

I did change the wishbone motor mount because the old one had cracked rubber, but the other mounts looked fine with no cracks. I just wasn't able to check the front mount. I can see it but I don't know how to inspect it..hmmm. Does anyone know if those things can make noise?

tomf

If the front motor mount is not working the most likely symptom would be a clunk coming from the engine compartment when you accelerate from a stop as the engine shifts backwards. Also you would be able to see the engine shift noticeably when you shifted through the gears. See this video. I took this video when two of the bolts on the front motor mount were loose. I tightened the two bolts and that corrected the problem.