JLAWS

Guys, just spent about $600 on front Lexus Oem struts, Front Strut mounts and labor to try to cure a knocking sound that developed recently. My 2007 GS350 has 84K miles on it. Figured it was time and I had a 50% off labor coupon from Pepboys so it wasn't bad.

Unfortunately that did not cure the problem so I figure it was the upper control arm, but the whole front end was solid. I decided to take one of the Moog sway bar end links off that I just put in and drive around. The noise was completely gone!! So it appears that I had a defective sway bar end link!!!

So before you guys start swapping out front end parts for a suspension noise which is what I've seen when I searched the forum, start with the cheapest one, the end links. Take out the side that makes the noise and drive around to see if the noise goes away. BTW it is safe to drive with one missing. I was able to drive normally with it off. I decided to go with Beck Arnley ones. So far so good. Might have to do dealer ones for 3x the amount if they fail .

anomale

glad you got it fixed. how did the old ones look? were the bushings wiped out? I am hearing a noise on mine but not a knock its more like a tink when I hit a bump. but I will order these parts and try it out. Thanks for the heads up.

JLAWS

My Mechanic said the shocks and strut mount seemed fine. I probably could have gotten another 10K miles out of them. The car drove solid, not sloppy handling.
I didn't expect 3 week old sway bar links to fail ! When I took the defective link off it seemed fine. Nothing overly loose. I even poked a pin hole in the boot to grease them and the noise was still there. A bad sway link sounds like a blown strut or a damaged mount bushing. The noise sounds like it is right under the hood which is deceiving.

P.S when tightening the links don't put them on crazy tight. There are actually torque ranges of around 40-60lbs for tightening the nuts. I recall putting them on ultra tight which might have damaged the link.