Yesterday I was out driving around out in the middle of nowhere. I got to a stop sign and I got on it spinning tires to 2nd gear... well when it shifted into second gear it not only scratched gears or chirped into 2nd (which is normal) but it made a clunk sound, felt like it hit under my floorboard. When applying the brakes (rather heavly) I heard the clunk again. I thought something let go or I hit something. After testing out shifting into second gear and heavy braking a few more times, I realized there is a problem somewhere. It feels like its coming somewhere in the front of the vehicle on the drivers side.
Today I put the car on jack stands, put the car in gear (D) with the foot on the brake, foot on the gas and building RPMs the car would make the clunk, when putting it in R and doing the same test, it would make the clunk again.
I checked the A arm bushings and they look fine, there not the original but they do have probably 100,000 miles on them since I last replaced them. No noticeable cracks or shifting though, they look really good. I checked the subframe bolts, all felt damn tight. The motor and tranny mount visually look normal. So does the ball joints and tie rod ends. I even check for play in the wheels, all felt good. Strut mounts look fine too, as well as the torque struts and bushings (which are poly anyway). Actully while testing today I ended up breaking that drivers side bracket on the engine (the cheap pot metal one). I'll have to pick one up at the junkyard hopefully tomorrow. I undid the torque struts and moved the engine and tranny by hand back and forth, I could't simulate the noise.
I should also mention, I had my wife get in the car and perform the testing above while I inspected all around and under the car. I have NAPA Solid Motor and Tranny mounts on the bottom end. It seems like both of the mounts had quite a bit of back and forth movement when torquing the motor, more so than what I would of thought being solid rubber, especially the tranny mount (and yes, I did make sure they were solid when installing them). I'm kinda wondering if my tranny mount is just shot already, but its hard to believe with only 7,000 miles on them. The A Arms seemed to deflect alot too, but I think most of that is normal seeing how there rubber bushings.
This is a long shot, but anyone ever have this kinda issue? What did you find out? I think I checked all the right areas honestly. I'm kinda baffled on this one. I figured it would be something easy to figure out, guess not knowing my luck. I figure i'm solo on this but i'm really hoping someone maybe able to point me in the right direction. Thanks!
Originally Posted by Sabrewings
