I have an intermittant "clunk" sound from the front left when going over bumps. Sometimes it only happens with bigger bumps, sometimes with small imperfections in the pavement, sometimes it's not there at all.

Current setup: H-sport springs, STB, Camber plates (-2 degrees), Camber arms (-1.5 degrees), H-sport comp rear sway bar on stiffest setting.

Any ideas what this might be?

Thanks

 

Check that the nut on top of the shock has not loosened up. This has happened to me a couple times with the h-sport setup. Doesn't matter what you torwue it to. I am going to be adding some loktite this time to see if it holds better.

 

Wow! Thanks for the quick reply, Dan. I'll give this a try.

 

Dan,

Now that I have the hood opened and the wheel off I'm not sure what nut you're refering to. Do I have to take off the blue metal ring that was installed with the camber plates?

Please be as specific as you can since I have 10 thumbs.

Thanks,

Gene

 

I thought he was referring to the strut top nut on the piston shaft...

 

Here is what I did.

I first jacked one side of the car up, then I loosened the 3 bolts that you would use to adjust camber.

Then I removed all of the torx screws holding the blue plate on. slide that out of the way (You may need to push the wheel down as the sway bar may be keeping it up) THen you can remove the nut on top ot the shock shaft, add some lock tite and retighten down. I used an impact gun to tighten it. It seems to work, and not let the shaft spin either.

Good Luck

 

Thanks, Dan. I'll give it a try.

 

you can tell if it is the nut by loading and unloading the suspension a bit with the floor jack while holding your finger on the nut. If the nut is not tight, it will move up and down. this is the same movement that causes the clunk.


watch out using the impact wrench. it is extremely difficult to remove same nut later if the hex get rounded by over-impacting. If the nut gets overtightened, there is a high probability the using the impact to remove it will then do the rounding. been there.

 

ok dude this is what it really could be, i had the same clunk over bumps in my car with the h sport rear bar and what it was is the nut that holds on the bar ya know the end link, basically just turn your rear wheel untill you can get an hold on it with an extention and tigten it up, weve had countless number of these problems with other cars and that has fixed the problem every single time!!! no need for all that work !! start with the little things first!!!

 

I thought we were talking about the strut top nut on the piston shaft...

 

Ok, I'll look at the rear first even tho I would swear it's coming from the front. I have no doubts as to my ability to screw things up that are more difficult than just turning a nut.

 

4G is suggesting loose sway bar link stud nuts might be the problem. four nuts in the front and four in the rear.

 

Hey Veni... did you get this resolved? I'd love to know what the problem ended up being... Thanks!

 

My 04' MCS with H-Sports springs and bars developed a "clunk" in the driver's side rear just last week. I dropped the rear shock/spring, lo and behold the strut top nut had backed off. Retorqued to 21# and we were off again in about 45 minutes.


Cheers,

 

I have the H-Sport Rear Sway, and after about 2 months, I also noticed an odd sound from the rear, sometimes over big bumps, and sometimes over small ones.

The fix was the same as previously described, but I also had my Sway bar clamp bolt loosen as well.

My suggestion, after installing the rear sway bar, wait about 1-2 months and then crawl back underneath to see if anything loosened up.

I do find it odd that most people have commented that it's most often the left rear. Things that make you go 'hmmmm

BB

 

Kilo,

I've decided to take my Mini back to the alignment shop to get this done. I'm afraid of goofing something up. I still have my racing alignment on the car so I can have them take it back to stock settings so I don't cone the tires any more than I have to. I'll let you know what they find.

 

Sounds good, thanks for the info...

 

Got the mini back from the shop on Saturday. The same shop that installed the H-sport springs and camber plates told me they couldn't get a socket onto the shock bolt, so they just aligned the front end. So far the clunk is very quiet, but still there.

Man, this is getting on my nerves. I would try again myself but I'm afraid to mess up the camber following the directions above.

 

veni- are you still talking about the top nut on the piston shaft? If so,
here's what I did when I installed the H-Sports. I didn't have that
special socket either...

1) Regular socket (I think it was a 19mm) dropped it onto
the top nut on the piston shaft.

2) Fitted an allen key wrench on the shaft through the 1/4" opening
of the socket, held the shaft with the allen wrench with my left hand.

3) Took a big channel-lock on the socket and tightened the nut with
my right hand.

Never had a clunk once...

 

Update:

I just had Quaife, flywheel, clutch and 19% pulley installed at Eurostyles East in Pittsburgh. I asked them to take a look at the left-front top strut nut. They fixed it for me without charge and the clunk is gone, "aaahhhhh!!"

I think the blessed absense of the clunk is almost better than the mods.

Thanks Brian and Hoagie!

 

>I think the blessed absense of the clunk is almost better than the mods.

..should've just left it stock...