Recently I've seen a rash of "my car is making clunking noise from the front end at low speeds" etc. posts in this forum. i thought I'd share my experience with this to help others diagnose.

My EvoIX has just over 30k miles on it. I noticed about 3-4 weeks ago when we had a thaw here in Iowa I noticed that at low speeds (like in a parking lot or coming up to a stop) I was getting a faint "clunking" sound from the front left of the car. I took the front left wheel off and did the checks for a bad/loose tie rod and ball joint, checked torque on all suspension bolts, checked the shock for oil leakage etc. Everything seemed good. Since I couldn't hunt the sound down and my suspension was still 100% stock, I took the car to the Mitsubishi dealership. They used their under-hood listening device to attempt to track down the sound. The first visit to the dealership they thought it was the front end links so they replaced those. The noise was still there so I took it back. Now the tech said he listened around the front ball joint, the sway bar, and the shock and that it sounded like the clunk was coming from the top of the shock. However, Mitsu would not replace because "they knew it was a problem and that a fix may be coming". I had planned on putting springs on my car before this summer's track season starts anyway so I decided I'd order the parts to replace the top shock mount myself since that would be coming off the car anyway to do the spring install.

So I ordered a new top hat, spring perch, bump stop, dust boot, and the lower rubber spring insulator to replace everything (basically all parts except the shock, spring, and top nut) to eliminate any of those parts as the issue. Once the spring install was done, the left side was completely quiet but now I had the same clunking, but even LOUDER, from the right side of the car! I should have replaced the hardware on both sides at the same time just to be sure but the right side still had the old hardware. Now my theory involved fickle top hat hardware or spring perch insulators, or a bad control arm bushing or the sway bar bushings themselves had gone bad.

To eliminate variables at this point, I detached the front endlinks from the front swaybar and zip-tied the swaybar up out of the way so it didn't bang into the control arms as I drove the car. I then went for a test drive. Noise was still happening and just as loud. I then removed the frame braces from under the front of the car and test drove it. Nothing changed. Same noise.

So I've now ordered the same upper suspension (and lower spring insulator)parts I did before with the hopes of eliminating the now "worse than the left side was" noise coming from the right shock area.

Should be installing those when they come in either tomorrow or Friday. We'll see how it goes from there.

 

Ok...

I've been having this problem with my set of aftermarket coilovers, so your telling me the solution to this problem was to replace:

top hat, spring perch, bump stop, dust boot, and the lower rubber spring insulator?

 

ive had the same problem... i think its the strut....

 

Keep us posted!!!

 

Was there anything damaged on the left side at all?

 

My noise comes and goes. There was a post I found from someone having the bottom rubber part where the spring sits trimmed, because it traps rocks in there. It causes the spring to bind up from the rocks being in the way. Here is where I found it along with a TON of more info. Hope this helps. https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...-noise-11.html

 

My similar klunking is definitley not the strut, I can go over a bump, feel the suspension (pss9's) go through it's motion and it will be totally silent.

I'll hear a soft, repeating klunking if I just go over some smooth but uneven road. If it was the strut, it would be an obvious and consistent clunk everytime the strut was compressing.

Shadow, thanks for documenting the thorough investigation. I'll stay tuned.

 

This theory makes no sense in this context. I replaced the hardware listed above and the sound disappeared ont he side I was having an issue with (left side) originally. If it was the shock replacement of those parts would make no difference. Also, shock is not leaking.

You can order all those parts I listed above from mitsubishiparts.net for around $70. The top hat is the most expensive thing at around $45.

I have the parts in. Install will happen either tonight after work or tomorrow sometime. Stay tuned...

 

I had a clunking noise from the front left (stock bilsteins). I saw a thread about the tophats or upper spring perch being misaligned (don't remember which). I checked out mine and they weren't aligned the same on both sides. I looked at a pic in the FSM to see how they were supposed to be aligned. Basically, what happened was I used an impact wrench to put everything back together when I put my springs on and it shifted the upper perch. I unbolted everything, reinstalled the perches making sure to hold them in place when I bolted it back together. Clunking gone.

 

my cousin had the same noise but once he changed the endlinks and bushings along with new struts and springs and top hats, the noise has completely gone

 

the clunking i had was my front end links. well, that is what the dealer told me. I have whiteline links on order from gruppe-s (not happy with the service) so we will see if that corrects the issue.

 

i had the same issue, a stud that stuck down with a nut on it a few inches towards the engine bay from the bottom of the shock was loose. i tightend it and so far no more clunking. It sits behind the a-arm and was a b@tch to tighten because there is no nut on top to put a wrench. i checked everything, brakes, cv-joints, wheels, a-arms, shocks, ect. everything was tight, this is all i could come up with and seems to have worked. pm me and i will try to explain where this bolt is better or shoot me your number and i will call you while you are looking for it and explain, hope this helps and good luck

 

I've noticed that my clunking is much more noticable when its warmer. This morning, driving to work at 5, I really didn't hear anything, it was about 34 degrees. On the drive home just now from work it came back, it's about 50.

Any thoughts?

 

To the OP, can you replicate the clunking noise when you jounce the front suspension at a stand still? What I mean is to rock the car up and down, don't push down on body panels of course, and listen for this clunking?

It is possible that the upper strut mount is bad. Since it is a macpherson strut setup, the upper mount has to have a bearing inside to allow for steering pivot. Over time and rough roads can tear up those bearing causing a clunking. Also, take off that little cover at the strut tower in the engine bay. If that material has broken down, you should see some powder of some sort. You can also put a finger on the top nut while you jounce it up and down to feel for the clunk.

 

I need to put an addendum to my original post, then I'll give you the update. When I originally replaced the shock hardware on the left side, I also took off my stock springs and put on some Works Ride springs, at which point the left side was dead silent and the right side was going crazy. I forgot to mention that in my original post.

So now on to the update:

Took the front right shock back off and apart Friday night. The Works instructions for the springs say that the tighter wound coils should be at the bottom of the shock, which is exactly how I installed the springs. We noticed when we took the shock off that the spring didn't seem to be fitting very well in the upper spring isolator. So when we took the spring off to put my new hardware on we tried to get things to fit "better" to no avail. The spring didn't want to sit completely in the upper isolator with a snug fit. So we flipped the spring over (tight wound coils at the top now) and everything seemed to go together MUCH better. It fit perfect. So we installed that shock back on the car.

Of course, now we wanted to see what the left side looked like too so we proceeded to take that one off even though it wasn't making any noise. Upon examination it had the same issue, the fit into the upper isolator just didn't seem "right" with the spring installed per the instructions. So we flipped that spring upside down too and the fit seemed perfect. Put that one back on the car , test drove it, VOILA!!!!, no abnormal noise/rattling from the front any longer. Just the good 'ole "this is an Evo not a buick" noises.

Upon examination of the old hardware the top hats look fine to me, but the rubber in the upper isolators and the rubber that fits under the spring at the bottom was pretty worn out looking.

And for the record I made 1000% sure before every installation of a shock on the car that the holes that are supposed to be lined up were lined up. Misalignment of the upper spring isolator with the lower perch was not a possibility.


Why does it matter which end the progressive part of the spring is installed anyway? It seemed to fit better the opposite way that the instructions recommended (the rears are still progressive part down as per instructions and they fit very well that way).