This front end clunk is driving me nuts (‘92 Integra)
5Please read the status of the situation before blindly commenting. The noise I am referring to is NOT the higher pitched window rattling. It is the clunk coming from the front end every once in a while...almost more like a creak.You can hear it on the right & left side, and sometimes in the middle area of the front end. The first one is at 14 seconds. it's very obvious at 00:54. Now, the one at 1:33 I am in neutral, not sure if that can rule anything out...
I've had this car for over 5 years now. I've dumped a lot of money and parts into it to make it a pretty good beater. 3-4 summers ago, I replaced the ENTIRE front end...literally everything possible. Axles, ball joints, upper control arms, lower control arms, tie rods, alignment, etc. So the parts are not that old, but that's long enough to admit something could be failing. The brakes were overhauled 2 winters ago.
This noise, coincidentally, or not...pops up when I put my winter wheels on - which are 15" alloys from a 1999/2000 Civic Si, very popular rims in the older Honda community, and have pretty much brand new Bridgestone Blizzaks. Which are worth EVERY PENNY...if you live in the snow belt and don't have dedicated snow tires...WTF are you even doing? Anyway... I hand torqued the lug nuts and rechecked to make sure they were staying tight - they are. Just a few days ago, I took the wheels off and checked the tie rods, ball joints, etc. Everything is tight and looks still in good condition. No ripped boots or leaks.
One thing I have not done is my struts, and I can't imagine they are in the best shape, but I wouldn't say they are blown. One of the first things that came to mind was the bump stops. The second thing is the sway bar end links. It definitely is more prominent over bumpy roads and obviously when I am going in a straight line, not so much while turning though it's possible. I have noticed when I'm stopping completely, right as the car settles to a halt, it will make a creak. The steering feels tight and completely normal.
To be honest, if it is either of those, I don't really have much concern...to me that is just noise. I'm basically driving this car into the ground and it still has a while to go BUT I'm not trying to throw a bunch of parts at it. What I've done over the past 5 years has made it run and drive quite well...buuuuut I'm also not trying to have my wheel fall off one of these days.
Any other ideas let me know, I'm pretty much just keeping an eye on it for now but it is really annoying. And yes...I wasn't wearing the bottom seatbelt (it was midnight and I was 2 min from home), and the ABS light comes on like clockwork about 3 minutes after I have started the car, bad sensor I guess, have never cared about it.
PS. My DA sounds pretty cool in this video..but in real life, it has an exhaust leak, and the phone didn't pick up that awful raspy exhaust leak noise, which makes it actually sound like junk haha