Clunk up front: FIXED -Check Skids!!

This isn’t exactly just another, “help me figure out why my truck makes this sound” post. I’ve read through plenty of those and I’m hoping to make another thread to help others like myself.

My truck: 2022 TRD OR 4x4 DCSB, 5600 miles. Daily driver, decent bit of wheeling, nothing crazy. Seen some dirt roads, plenty of mud, some shallow water crossings, and has been twisted through some moguls. Well washed, mud always cleaned quickly, INOX MX3 underneath the whole truck.

The issue- when turning and going over a bump (primarily pulling into my inclined driveway and bumping over the gutter) there is a clunk, clunk sound. Left side then right side, whichever lifts up first. Also happens when backing out from the garage and transferring onto the descending driveway. The clunk is pretty loud. This noise seems to have just started within the last couple of weeks and I am quite certain it has grown louder in the last couple days.

What I’ve done so far: starting small I retorqued all the bolts to the sliders and skid plates (OEM engine and RCI trans). I then loosened and retorqued the UCA bolts. I also loosened and retorqued the sway bar bolts right near the tire. All properly torqued to spec.
The noise is still there. I’ve set up an appointment at the dealership to have them evaluate the LCA cam bolts and also the cab mount bolts and bushings (one of these seems to be the likely culprit). Oftentimes those cam bolts are allegedly not torqued to 135 after an alignment, so I am hoping that is the issue; I don’t have a torque wrench that goes above 100 and, given the truck is so new, I’ll just let the dealership take a stab at it now.

Anyhow I will update the post in a couple days to see if the issue is remedied.

Also if you had similar issues and had them fixed, let us all know what it was and what was done.

TIA!

 

Let us know the outcome. I’m having the exact same issue on my 2020. I’ve retorqued everything several times, taken videos of the suspension, and grinded down my skid plate as the sway bar looked to be hitting it but the noise continues. The only other thing I can think it may be is the body mount bushings as they seem to have a lot of play in the video I took

https://youtube.com/shorts/NRjv0gwSoZI?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/aoY68syUxIw?feature=share

 

Have you taken it to dealership?

 

Not yet. It’s lifted and outside of the 3 year warranty so I’d prefer to fix it myself if I can

 

If you have Aftermarket Coil overs inspect the coils and sway bar to see if you see any marks of evidence that the sway bar is contacting the coils.

 

mine looked to be making contact so I installed a sway bar spacer which seemed to fix that but I still have the noise. I didn’t even think of that, hopefully that fixes OPs issue.

 

Good point. Will check.

 

Do you have aftermarket suspension ?

 

Yes but nothing looks to contact anything else. I’ve had the suspension for many months, issue is new. 5100’s, OME 887’s, and Icon AAL. Very common and vanilla suspension setup.

 

I’d be willing to bet it’s your strut assemblies possibly the top mounts. In fact I’d bet my paycheck lol

 

You mean this area?

 

Also that’s an interesting take. After hours of combing the internet and forums that’s the first I’ve seen this come up. it always seems to be cam bolts, UCA bolts, or cab mounts.

 

If the cab mounts get filled up with mud it will make sounds similar to what you describe. Basically the bushing can’t flex and so its job because the cavity it sits in is filled with debris. The cab then just hits the accumulated crap and clunks.

 

The issue you are describing, I have almost the same exact noise but mine is only the driver front side. I just started experiencing the noise the end of last year and I have the 6112/5160 lift. I got mine preassembled from shock surplus. The noise is annoying and i haven't taken it to the dealer or anything. I have a 2020 sport with 18k miles. I also have the oem skid plate with the rci trans skid. I've seen people saying they had popping sound after they installed their oem skid plate too when they are angling in the driveway and such.

 

If it was the skid I would imagine that the sound would have started right after the install especially since I retorqued that too. I also suspect the sound for RCI trans skid with OEM engine skid magnet be folks installing without the right hardware for trans skid to adapt to engine skid.

 

That strut looks factory. Didn’t you say was aftermarket?

 

I’m gonna say it’s the strut try spraying the top mount area with silicone and see if it goes away

 

I've had a similar noise develop on my 2020 OR. Fox struts and Full RCI Skids. They have been in place for a year / 10k miles, noise just started. No mud / dirt in body mounts. I only seem to hear it at very low speeds, when parking for instance. I have not been able to locate the sound precisely. Will be interested to see your experience in figuring this out.

 

I had a clunk more like a pop type sound too after some off roading. It would only doing on drive ways while the steering wheels was turned.

I narrowed it down to my TRD skid plate along with Talon Garage aluminum cat shield plate. I loosened all the bolts and just started tightening them in star pattern like we do with wheels. Sound is now gone.