91 LS Suspension Clunk

[White ls400]

I have a bit of a clunk in the front end of my car when under hard breaking or when going over a bump when turning. Would it more likely be upper control arm bushes, lower ball joints or the castor rod bushes?

 

[Nick M]

You have to check and see. Any competent front end shop can do an accurate diagnosis.

 

[och]

I'd look into lower ball joints and steering rods first.

 

[White ls400]

The only apparently competent steering shop around here miraculously caused these problems i am having somehow as i didnt have these problems before they replaced my struts and the reason i thought upper control arms as they were removed to get the strut out for some reason i cant remember why, but i was also thinking lower ball joints and possibly steering rods because it is worse while turning over bumps but any hard bump will caus a clunk

 

[spf_lexus]

BUSHINGS... BUSHINGS ... BUSHINGS! these are almost always the culprit w/ clunking. My 91 had oem bushes and they were ALL bad... took me a solid week of changing all of em' to polyurethane but it feels like its brand new. For your front clunk it might be the balljoints but a simple shaking of the wheel (off ground) should tell yes/no. But if it isnt a balljoint then the strut-rod bushing or upper arm bushings, they tend to go first. These are relatively cheap if you can manage the dirty job of changing them out; go to a shop for the labor... be prepared for a **** storm lol.

 

[White ls400]

just out of curiousity did you use the daizen engineering ones and if so are they really that noisy and harsh, because they are far better value for money than the rubber ones here is aus

 

[spf_lexus]

I have EVERY stock bushing replaced w/ polyurethane and I don't have any squeaking problems at all. Just make sure you use synthetic white lithium grease, and not the generic red. The front end has mostly daizen bushings as well as sway bushes and they work great... the rest out in the rear is from Carson Toyota and they are cheaper than the daizens and the exact same product. I would recommend these before any other performance mod, it just makes this car feel so much more solid.