e-man

Hey guys. I'm thinking one of you suspension experts out there might know what's going on here.

Quick history. 99 GS400, 136,000 miles, stock 17s in the summer, stock 16s in the winter. I am the second owner of the car. I've had it since 65,000 miles.

At 80,000 miles, I replaced the front lower ball joints and shocks all around. At 135,000 miles, I replaced the front driver's side upper control arm.

It's kind of hard to describe, but the front suspension just feels and sounds loose. When going slowly over uneven pavement, I hear this soft almost hollow clunking noise. It seems to go away as I speed up (although it may be that I just can't hear it because road noise is drowning it out). Also, in general, the car just seems to be riding really rough (that is, the front end, not the rear).

Could the lower ball joints need replacing again? Tie rod ends? What do you guys think?

e

vwynn

iTrader: (4)

replace the steering rack bushings yet?

e-man

No. The only other thing I replaced were the strut caps (at 80,000 miles).

So I suppose it could be the steering rack bushings. Are those expensive to replace? What about the sway bar links/bushings? I did some research after posting and I think it could be that also.

GS300ToM

iTrader: (32)

ball joints can only be visually inspected & should be just replace as for maintenance and checking for tie rods (jack up the car, wheels off the ground then left hand on 9 oclock positon of the wheel and right hand at 3 oclock and rock them back and forth *left to right* to see if there are any play) if there is then your outter or inner can be bad just double check it with someone under when doing so..

1.5RS-T

i also have the same clunking noise over uneven pavement. i replaced the lower ball joint and the strut cap hoping it would go away, but it didn't. after 6 months, i found out that both my tires worn out on the inside really badly. the car was not pulling or did anything i didn't like except for the clunking noise and vibration at 60mph. i decided to remove the wheel and have another look and that is when i found the upper ball joint was making the noise and extremely loose. this ball joint is a complete set with the control arm = really expensive.

GS4_Fiend

iTrader: (22)

Nice catch. Good to know.

skperformance

iTrader: (6)

look at my post that tells about front suspension problems.

Rick James

The sway bar bushings need to be replaced. $40 for the polyurethane ones, that will fix it. I had the same problem. I replaced upper control arms, ball joints and even the strut mounts, thinking that was the problem. Spent the $40 for the Daizen sway bar bushings and the noise went away. I would start with the cheaper fix 1st as opposed to the opposite way I went about it.

If I spent the $40 1st i could have gotten my TTE lip painted by now.

united19

I have rough ride on my 96 ES300 with 162,000 and heard some noise on the cars rear passenger side, no extra or un-even wear on tires. Ask two mechanics for remedy and both recommended Strut assembelly change. One even said its recommended to change the Strut every 50,000 miles. any thoughts. Changing the two front Struts with labor cost about $250.

skperformance

iTrader: (6)

if you have an es then you should be posting in the ES section as the GS is a completely different car including it being RWD.

rstreidl

I had similar noise, only when driving at slower speeds, was smooth on the highway, and I replaced the front shocks with KYB GR-2's and it went away. It looked they were original equipment and the car has 185k on it. If you have the money (I was trying to go as cheap as possible got them online for $150 delivered) coilovers would be easier for the DIY peeps. The spring compressor to release the shock was a biotch!!

GS4VIPbOSS

iTrader: (9)

Try to tighten your swaybar endlinks. I changed out my ball joints and tie rods and still noticed an annoying clunk. I was reading all this advise on the forums and getting ready to replace my upper control arms/caster bushings thinking that would be the answer-but it was as simple as the endlinks to the swaybar being loose-causing that annoying clunking noise. So before you pull the trigger on urethane bushings and caster arm this and that - try tightening your endlinks.