Bad diagnostics

[07EddyB]

So I was in town Wednesday and noticed that I was getting a bad clunk from the front when braking and when hitting bumps. In a parking lot, I turned my wheels and checked the sway bar end links - I replaced them last year but noticed when I grabbed the bar that I could physically move it back and forth. Eureka! I drove the car the rest of the week.
I ordered new bushings for the frame mounts and replaced them this morning. Took it out for a victory lap and the noise was still there. Put the front in the air and spent the better part of 1.5 hours checking everything. I was about to give up when I remembered that sometimes a problem in the rear can sound like it's coming from the front. Went to the back and the first end link I looked at was missing a bushing.
Looks like I'll be waiting for parts again.

 

[michael loibl]

Don’t be so hard on yourself, many “professional” repair shops would have done something similar and limited their focus to the front end.

Now congratulate yourself for using the knowledge of this forum to extend your search to the rear, where you found the problem and hopefully that corrects it.

 

[06EBMG]

I think your diagnostics were fine. You heard a noise from the front when braking, verified that the front sway bar bushings were shot, which WILL cause a rather loud "clunk" noise, replaced them, then test drove the vehicle to confirm the repair. Still heard a noise. Unfortunately, you had two separate issues at the same time. I used to be a professional automotive technician and would have done it the same way thinking that I found the problem. The downer for the customer would have been the return call from the service advisor stating that while on the test drive the technician found another issue causing a clunking noise. Customer will think, "these guys are idiots they do not know how to diagnose the color of a brown paper bag, blah, blah, blah, I bet the front bushings were not even bad" when in reality these things happen. I think all you got is a small taste of what it is like (sometimes) for technicians and service advisors out there. The good news here is that you found the other issue causing the noise and are able to correct it rather easily with very little (relative) expense.
Keep the bottom side down.

 

[07EddyB]

I told the wife that in reality I nailed it - I just got the wrong end. Based on the sound, the stabilizer bar was the first thing I thought of. I happened too quickly to be anything else. I found the bar loose on the front and stopped looking. I'm more disappointed that I didn't think to check the rear before tearing into the front. I knew better - the rear end links are original at 111K. I knew they were going to fail soon. Be aware though, when something is banging underneath it's pretty hard to tell which end it's coming from.

 

[Beachcomber86]

I told the wife that in reality I nailed it - I just got the wrong end. Based on the sound, the stabilizer bar was the first thing I thought of. I happened too quickly to be anything else. I found the bar loose on the front and stopped looking. I'm more disappointed that I didn't think to check the rear before tearing into the front. I knew better - the rear end links are original at 111K. I knew they were going to fail soon. Be aware though, when something is banging underneath it's pretty hard to tell which end it's coming from.

It could have been that repairing the front caused the rear to fail. That's what happened to me.

 

[07EddyB]

End links installed - no more clunk. Between the new end links in the rear and the new frame bushings in the front it does feel tighter but that's hard to say for sure since I've been driving the car for a week.

I wish everything on the Ex was this easy

 

[07EddyB]

So I've driven it for a few days - I had a vibration on the interstate and that is gone now. Overall, it made my front end tighter and less prone to vibration. I'm talking about the bar to frame bushings that I put on the front. I've never seen this before in a vehicle but in this case - new sway bar bushings at the frame point actually tightened up my front end.
I mentioned earlier that I had at least a quarter inch play side to side in the bar. I found out when I replaced the bushings that the driver side bushing has a groove in it that fits onto a raised portion on the bar. There should be no side to side play in the sway bar.
If you only replaced your end links when they broke then do yourself a favor - replace the mounting bushings also.