Do you just live with a clunk?

Put on Dakar 095’s and 884 coils up front along with Bilstein 5100’s last fall. For the last 9 months I’ve had a slight clunk when going over even mild bumps.

I’ve been through it front and rear so many times and after an hour again today I’m wondering if I just need to turn the radio up and get used to it. No matter what I do I just can’t see anything obvious and have read and reread all kinds of threads here.

i suppose I’m just venting at this point but how many of you just live with it and call it ‘normal’ ????

 

I'm sure you've thought of this, but have you checked the torque on your lower control arm cam bolts?
I would even consider marking their locations, on the cams relative to the frame, loosen and retighten them one at a time. I would even do this with the lower strut bolt. Everything should be tightened with the weight of the truck on the suspension, at ride height.
The best way to do this would be on a set of good ramps. This would give you room to work without drooping the suspension.

 

I haven’t tried that but just got an alignment done.
I’m willing to try anything....

 

Those cam bolts have to be torqued pretty good. Verify this, but I think they take something like 93 ft*lbs. Note that the front ones and back ones have to be tightened differently. One, you tighten from the bolt head, the other you tighten with the nut. Look them over before you get to cranking, it's pretty evident.
Let us know!

 

I’ll put that on the to do list tomorrow! Thank you!

 

double check sway bar links and bushings, I twist wrenches for a living and 9 out of 10 times its links or bushings making the noise

 

I’ll check those again, did so today but didn’t check the torque specs, just checked for obvious loose things

 

100 ft lbs is the spec

 

For the LCA hardware, not the sway bar stuff.

 

Here's a good pic I found on here showing the OEM LCA bolts:

Top of the pic is the front bolt, bottom of pic is the rear. It helped me to see how they went together. I'm sure you know to mark their positions with a paint pen or equivalent before wrenching on them.

Just some random thoughts, I have heard some folks say you can get a clunk if your Control arm bushings have separated, those ever been replaced?
I know the sleeve (48409-60020) is prone to seizing in the bushing, dealing with that now on mine. There are aftermarket bolts/sleeves out there that have larger tolerances between sleeve/bushing and sleeve/bolt that can lead to clunking. Tire shops sometimes use these instead of OEM to save cost.

Of course, if the clunking has been happening since the new springs, I'm probably barking up the wrong tree.

 

yup. i learned to live with it. have it for 2 yrs now with 5100 ride height adjustable fronts. drive it over rr track humps at 60mph and it will eventually go away. after 25k miles, mine did.

 

You should also look at the radiator core support (make sure it's not cracked) and the rubber mounts for it.

 

My eyes quick-scanned this thread's title and saw, "Do you just live with a drunk?"

Oh well, carry on...

 

I’m also going to check my sway bar again....I believe it’s mighty close to the bottom of the coil from what I saw yesterday

 

I immediately imagined the headline for this; “Florida Man fixes truck suspension by repeatedly launching it off railroad tracks”

 

crank down on the cab/body mount bolts. My 2013 clunked any time the frame flexed at all (every time I pulled in or out of my sloped driveway) and it drove me nuts. Like you, I thought I tried everything. I eventually found that it was the body mount bolts. They’re very easy to access. They’re supposed to be re-torqued every so often but they’re often overlooked.

 

Ok, I spent an hour and retorqued the suspension parts to spec and the body mounts. One of the LCA cam bolts needed about a 1/2 turn to hit 100 lb/ft but the rest seemed right at spec.

thought I had it corrected but took a test drive and it’s still there.
This is just a low-speed clunk but driving me nuts.

Here’s a pic I took of the sway bar and coil. Not the best pic but would anyone be concerned with the closeness?

 

i love being a FL man lol

 

Is the clunk when the front or rear axle goes over the bump? I have had sway bar clunking noises with lifted and stock FJ's and Tacomas, especially with the sway bar causing noise when contacting both stockWith and aftermarket skids. For my FJ, it went away when I permanently removed the sway bar, but overall I learned to live with it with every other vehicle.

 

Ive got the same clunk on my driver side front going over mild speed bumps. Started with stock suspension. Ive since upgraded to the TRD pro suspension, new LCAs, new UCAs, AAL im the back. everything has been retorqued and Ive still got the clunk. Absolutely no idea what is causing mine.