Greetings, I drive a 2003 Corolla CE with a 5 speed. There is a clunk in the suspension, and at times it can even sound like a snap. It is pronounced when turning, and when driving over smaller imperfections in the road. Larger imperfections seem not to trigger this as much. It is coming from the front, and seems to be mostly on the passenger side. I recently replaced the control arms and ball joints (MOOG), struts (KYB) and end links (Delphi). I have not replaced the strut mounts and have not yet had the aligned. Any thoughts? Thank you kindly.
First find out the corner it's coming from. either bounce the vehicle on the ground, or jack it up and use a 2x4 to compress the suspension. Use your ears and hands to manipulate all the different suspension and driveline components until you find the source of the sound. Test anything that moves including steering, sway bar, struts, springs etc. Look for rust parts.
Tie rods are solid, the driveshaft on the front left has about a centimeter of play. The end links and and struts are solid under load but have not checked while jacked since replacing them 2 days ago
a centimeter which way?
If I pull on it, it’ll move lengthwise - toward the wheel and transmission
that's ok. As the suspension travels up and down, the distance from the wheel hub to the transmission constantly changes. To accommodate that, the axle needs freedom to move in and out.
I've seen coil springs crack and cause noise too.
Check the CV joints and wheel bearings as well. When you say end links do you mean tie rods or sway bar links? Many clunks come from broken or worn sway bar links.
