So, the backstory. I was driving up to Pittsburgh with MTTS, while leading the pack on a 2 lane road about 2 hours south of Pitt I heard a loud crack. I immediately pulled over and threw on the hazard. The rest of the group pulled over also, though not nearly as fast as I (sorry folks if you were with me.) I looked around the car to see if I hit something, all the body work looked ok, so I got under the car to see if something looked out of place there, nothing either. So I radioed to the group what happened, and that I thought everything was ok. I got back to the front of the pack (their suggestion so if something was wrong, they'd see me pull off again.) Everything ran smoothly the rest of the way into Pitt. The car tracked straight, was still very tight in its steering, no lights came on, everything seemed great.

The following morning on our way to get breakfast I left my top up when I started to hear a metal ping as I went over bumps in the road. It was a very distinct sound coming from the rear of the car, seemingly from the passenger side. When my girlfriend and I arrived at the restaurant for breakfast (no more then a mile from our hotel) I got under the car again to check around where I heard the sound coming from. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I would be looking for, so it all looked to be ok (still). We traveled home with the top up (blasphemy, I know) and every bump in the road gave the same clink/clank or clunk, metal to metal sound. Is there any guess as to what it might be? I am scheduled to take it in to the dealer tomorrow but want to give them a place to start to look.

 

I don't know what the problem is but the "ping" noise is the kind of noise a bad spring might make.

 

I am not sure if it is the same problem but the two noises I have gotten from the back are:
1. Creaking from the sway bar bushings (aftermarket)
2. Clunking from a loose end link joint

Perhaps #2 is more likely given your situation. Get lie the floor in the back of the car and grab each component in the back and give it a good tug in a couple of directions. If it moves in a funny way at the bolt or is loose or makes clunking noises, you have found a culprit. Start with the control arms, then the end links, the the sway bar and lastly the exhaust. Also look at the heat shield above the muffler.

Good luck.