I replaced the steering knuckles on my FC recently and now I'm hearing a "clunk" when I'm taking a tight turn at parking lot speeds or if I hit a pothole/bump just the right way. The noise only seems to be coming from the left side. I took the car for an alignment today, and the shop guys said it could either be a problem with the strut (doubtful) or the tie rod wasn't torqued down enough (more likely). The steering itself is nice and tight; no noises at higher speeds. I'm going to retorque all of the bolts tomorrow. Any other possibilities?
Sway bar link. Make sure they are tight and have no wear or slop.
Any chance that the steering column clamps are loose? I think that the Miata has a little wedge piece that goes in there and if they back out the column is sloppy even if the bolts are tight. I'd bet they used the same setup on the FC.
I don't know; I've never taken apart a steering system. I can't find what you're talking about in the FSM diagrams. Here's a .pdf from the 88 RX-7 FSM of the power steering system if you want to compare it to the Miata's.
That being said, I don't think that's the case. Two people besides myself say the steering is tight with no sloppiness and I'm not feeling anything abnormal through the steering wheel. Since this only started occuring after I swapped out the knuckles, I think the problem lies there. If the clunk continues after I torque everything to spec, I'll take a look at the steering system as a whole.
I retorqued the sway bar end link bolts to spec, but the sound still remains. To clarify, it's only making the clunk noise when I turn a tight left. I'm also experiencing pulling to the right and vibration in the steering wheel sometimes at highway speeds (65mph+). Tie rods, perhaps?
If your shocks have a ring at one or both ends, check to see that the rubber or delrin grommet is intact. My SAAB did the same thing; new grommets every 35,000 miles fixed it.
Dan
RexSeven wrote:
n00b question: Steering clunk at low speed ??
go fast
always
fiksed
Anyway, this may be waaay outa my league, suspension is most definitely not my forte, but I had a buddy with an chevelle (I know theyre very different, but we are talking FF/RR chassis, so theres my comparison) and he had a very similar problem. turned out to be worn tie rod ends or ball joints...or something like that. Energy suspension bushings fixed it. Just my .02
A sway bar link would make noises in both directions (and it would be LOUD)....my AE92 did the exact same thing and it turned out to be a ball joint.
