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clunk coming from the back of my car.

('98-'00) 
3K views 21 replies 7 participants last post by  Wiscon_Mark 
#1 ·
it also has a weird shift feeling sometimes. i jsut installed my sti struts and the car drives awesome other then that. any idea what it could be? i was thinking diff bushing maybe?
 
#7 ·
I've done that before. The torque on these bolts are 12-18 lbs/ft. I don't remember correctly but its not that tight.

I tried to knock out the stud while it was on the car but it wouldn't budge. So I ended up taking the strut apart putting a socket under the stud, to give it support, then used a hammer on the busted stud from the tophat. For the rear tophat you'll have to disassemble the rubber part from the metal plate the studs are pressed into. There should be tutorials on here as people have replaced these studs with longer ones.

I didn't have another tophat to take a stud from so I found a nut, lock washer, and bolt go in its place.

You can drive around with just 2 studs without problems but before you do some spirited driving or rack up some miles I would recommend getting it replaced.

As far as the clunk. Double check all your bolts. If thats not it, theres a chance you were sold 04 STi struts that are notorious for clunking.

Pretty much you'll have to disassemble the struts and lube up the lower strut housing. There's plenty of tutorials for this on WRX forums.
 
#9 ·
Is everything torqued properly after installation?

Did you inspect and/or replace the top hats? If they're worn, it could lead to suspension slop which can clunk during cornering/weight transfer.


Any other suspension mods?

I thought I read somewhere if you went with the STI lowering, you needed to rotate your sway bar and get different endlinks.
 
#16 ·
nahh just the struts. ya i need to find a swaybar i think and endlinks prollly. but im to broke. some people have told me it might be my diff bushings. but idk what to believe.
Broke huh...

So how much, if any, troubleshooting have you done??

We aren't there, we can't say what your clunking noise is, nore can we suggest it's your diff bushings...

BUT, the likelyhood of it being an suspension install error is MUCH greater than it being a diff bushing... all things considered...

So, take yourself out and take it apart and figure out what you did wrong...
 
#20 ·
It depends on how bad it is, but some of the guys at SLi swear by Lubeguard ATF additive. Helps keep the tranny temps more even and can fix the problem.

If its bad, you'll need a new/not broken transmission.

It may not be torque bind though, it was just a guess.

You haven't really told us whether its bump dependent or not though. If you're turning in a parking lot over smooth pavement and getting the clunking, it could be torque bind. It also depends on whether or not the car is shifting, or if you're accelerating. A diff clunking would be during a shift or suddenly opening up the throttle, not while going a constant speed. Struts clunking would be from going over a bump. Torque bind most consistently manifests itself while turning at low speeds. You haven't accounted for the variables, so we can't really tell you for sure what it would be.
 
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