Single pop/clunk from front suspension?!

I posted this a few times and it just gets lost in the BS thread. Hoping someone may have a good guess or solution. And hopefully it'll help someone else once I figure out the problem.

Truck setup:
OME 885/90021's
trim packer on drivers side
No other aftermarket goodies
Sway bar was removed to isolate noise
Alignment is within spec with stock UCAs
27k miles (Lifted for 15k I'd guess)


I have a single click/clunk/pop that is very obvious and audible. I dont recall if I can feel it through the pedal or steering wheel, but if I can, it is very slight. It is on the drivers front corner that only happens when off-roading and I hit a rock/bump. Doesnt usually happen on washboard type bumps, doesnt happen at all on the paved road even when hitting potholes. Its more of a slow rocky terrain when it'll randomly do it. I have not been able to reproduce it or I would try to get under there while it was making the sound. Since it first started happening, the shocks have been swapped and it remains the same, sway bar removed and its the same, all bolts are tight, checked multiple times. It has had multiple alignments and tire rotations.

Turning does not matter, has happened when driving straight and turning from speeds of 0.1 to 15mph, in drive and reverse and it has been aligned since the noise started. Has happened in 2 and 4wd.

I just took off the wheel. pried around between the knuckle and control arms with no signs of any issue. Twisted the tie rod end and it feels smooth.

I can grab the tire with the truck on the ground and try to shake it all I want with no noise. I am thinking it could be upper ball joint, lower ball joint or tie rod end since there is nothing else that I would think makes the noise. It sounds like a clunk a sway bar would make... but its not on the truck anymore. Any good ways to test if I cant feel anything by wiggling the crap out of it?

It seems like it happens when the tire is pushed forward or backward since up and down on the street wont reproduce it. Still not sure why potholes wont make it do it.

 

I had a similar thing with my truck, I couldn't find answers and no one could help.

One day I had the grill out and was messing around when I found the front body mount slightly loose and the metal part of the bushing was rusty and sticking to the bolt.
Check there and if so takt the thing of and grease the bolt and bushing.

 

Do you have the diff drop?

 

I have a clunk from my drivers side front setup when fully compressed going over dips at +10mph. Best answer I've gotten is 'clunking just happens with a lift setup'. I have 5100s set to 0 and OME 881s. Other than the occasional clunk they perform great.

 

I'll look for it, thanks

 

Negative

Meant to put it in the op, but it's not a fully compressed /extended issue. It has happened as soon as it starts to go up or down or slightly after.

 

Wild-ass-guess, but maybe you dropped a steel tool or bolt into a nook/cranny in the driver-side front, and it rattles sometimes.

 

Torque your cam bolts n nuts on the lower control arms to 100ft#'s. I guarantee the person who did the alignment didn't tighten them enough. If you still have the factory front skid, you will need to move it out the way to torque the front two.

 

Out of curiosity does the noise ever occur if you are backing up and then moving forward, or changing direction of travel?

 

Haha nope

I was able to torque the rear one, it was slightly under torqued. I didn't remove the skid plate to get the front one... Guess I'll try when i get a chance.

Not the brake noise, it does that sometimes. I mostly fixed that by packing dirt and crap in there.

 

Checked the front body mounts behind the bumper... tight as can be.

 

Going to be reinstalling the sway bar today, so i can again. I'm going to take the skid plate off to get to the front cam bolts to torque them properly.

Went out on a trail last night to find meteors and I maybe heard the noise twice, and those times i really wasn't positive it was the noise.

So, that it was the LCA cam bolts being a few lb/ft low.

 

I had that issue with my lca cam bolts

 

I find it stupid, yet expected that Toyota would not notch the skid to make it easier to access the front bolts...

They should know that the chances are unlikely that some guy at a tire place is going to give a crap enough to go through all the work to torque the front ones properly. But had i known that it was the case that they are basically inaccessible, i would've checked those first.

 

I dropped the skid to torque the LCA bolts to 100ft/lbs. All four needed extra tightening to get them there, the drivers side more than the passenger side. Sway bar is back on, and the leak I found last time I did the one LCA bolt appears to be growing, and coming from the rear main with 27k on the truck. Sooooo... going to the dealer who's done all the service up to this point and we're gonna figure that one out! The last tech had an issue figuring out how to drop the spare tire, and how to do the service report, so... I dont want to jump to any conclusions, but...

 

Took it offroad today, not a peep. So it was apparently the LCA bolts. I'll have to remember to specify that they torque them down correctly next time I go in for an alignment.