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Hi, New to this forum. I have been looking and reading for a couple weeks. I have a 96 LS400 with 179000 miles. The car has been exceptionally cared for and maintained. But something has worn out. The car has the air suspension. The lower ball joints were showing some wear and were just replaced but there is still a heavy clunk when hitting uneven surfaces , pot holes or jabbing the brakes. Other wise it rides nice. I see where a coil over strut may have the strut mount causing this noise but dont see how the air strut could do the same, or am I wrong. Strut rod bushing? They are original and do have fine cracks but are intact. Hopefully someone has repaired this experience and I just haven't located their findings and solution. Thanks. Help will be greatly appreciated.
Yes, the strut rod bushing is a known part that causes clunking when braking or driving over bumps. Originals typically are good from 50K-125K. If the roads the car were super smooth they may go longer. Other typical symptoms would be tire wear.
Other wear items are engine mounts and the tranny mount.
My first bet is the upper control arm pivot joints or the ball joint. And non of the joints that move on that UCA are made of rubber, they are all metal.
i had a low speed clunking going over bumps, along with my front sway bar literally sliding in the rubber mounts.
I replaced the rubber sway bar mounts from orielly for 18 bucks and the sway bar endlinks for 15.99 each. It solved my problem! its nice and tight now. Both have lifetime warranties so i won't have to worry about them again.
The car also handles better, due to the sway bar not sliding around. Steering also seems to track much better as well on the highway.
I recommend doing this, takes about an hour with my car up on ramps. My car had 256k miles at the time, 97 LS400
Hello again, I wanted to update this situation for those having this issue. I had a hard clunk sound from front end of this 96 ls400 I recently purchased. I bought the car from original owner, 178k, very good condition. Lexus service only. When purchased it needed ant mast, tires and hood struts, along with a solution to this clunking. The noise happened when I hit pot holes, change in surface level and , most importantly, when the brakes were jabbed. I read a few forum posts with no definitive answer. I put Michelin premier a/s tires on it at sears(best deal, $109 apiece out the door.) Part of that deal was an inspection(laugh here) after 3 technicians looked it over they informed me that I needed to replace the lower ball joints. I doubted this would address the issue but with these miles it couldn't hurt. They wanted $620, I bought beck-arnley pair for $70, no shipping, and it took 1 1/2 hrs to do both. No change same "clunk." I had Lexus tech take a ride with me last week and he assured me it was strut rod bushings, which was the prime suspect all along but wasn't in a hurry to fix. Lexus wanted $1300 w/ alignment to replace the 2. I bought toyota oem strut rods $216 for the pair. It took me 2 hrs to do the first one. Why? because I made the mistake of trying to remove the sway bar link on that side and ended up having to cut it off. Fortunately I had new link to replace it with.
So I removed lower strut bolt, strut mount bolts, and leveling link from strut mount as not to disturb the setting. I have the air ride in this car. With these 3 bolts removed the mount moves even with the sway bar link attached. Aarggh. To get to the inside strut mount bolt that goes into the lower control arm I used a clamp to pull it toward the out side of the car. Before removing any bolts I first made sure I was able to loosen the nuts on all the bolts, which were previously sprayed. I was concerned with the strut rod nuts as they can be very tight. Lucky for me this car is all clean underneath and all came loose, with the help of a pipe on the breaker bar. Remove the strut bar from the lower control arm and then remove the bolt from front, bushing mount. Replace in reverse order being sure to have the strut rod above the control arm before attaching front mount. You have to remove the front plastic pan and helped to take a few screws out of the inner fender so it will move a little. You'll need a jack to lift the lower control arm up to the strut rod bolts. You'll need 17, 19, 22 and 24 mm sockets, extensions, etc. That's it, clunk is gone. Like a new car.
I have the old Lexus struts that need bushings. Rust free, and the old hood struts which wouldn't hold hood as a pair but one new with the old worked fine. Toyota oem.
I hope this helps someone. I have found some useful information here. Good luck
the old hood struts which wouldn't hold hood as a pair but one new with the old worked fine. Toyota oem.
I hope this helps someone. I have found some useful information here. Good luck
Nice job, fixing the clunk!
Regarding the hood struts, I would not recommend having one very strong strut and one old strut. Not only does this decrease the life of the new hood strut, but it can also slightly affect the alignment of the hood and/or warp the hood a little. I remember reading about this a while back, before I joined this forum.
It's best to replace both at the same time with the same brand.
Thanks. I replaced them both at the same time. Just noticed that after first one done hood stayed up by itself. I mention this because I realize some owners use the slightly worn ones for something. I have them.
My first bet is the upper control arm pivot joints or the ball joint. And non of the joints that move on that UCA are made of rubber, they are all metal.
2 notes:
1- If you're replacing the bushings inside the bars (not the entire bar assemblies) make sure to clock the bushings per the FSM.
2- do NOT put final torque on the front strut rod bolt (through the strut rod bushing) without the car dropped down onto the wheels and tires otherwise the bushings WILL tear prematurely. (also in the FSM)
Are you talking about the diagonal bar that goes from the lower control arm to the front of the sub frame towards the front bumper? Or the lower bushing that attaches the spring loaded shock strut to the lower control arm?
A strut bar is mentioned, and changing the shock strut bushing would not be easy to do.
Regardless my clunk noise was the upper control arm swing bearings being loose.
Yes the strut rod goes from the lower control arm to the front where there is a mounting place on the frame. I have air suspension and don't know of any replaceable bushing on the lower end of the strut.
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12-10-15, 08:18 PM
ls400 clunk
