Clunk after alignment. LCA bolt question. Please advise!!!!

[fsaral77]

So after a new tires and alignment I’m getting a hard clunk when backing out of driveway in the morning and taking a drifting left turn from the street to a parking lot for example. Sometimes I can replicate the clunk when backing out and hitting brakes too with straight wheels. Sometimes I have same clunk when truck has been parked for about 30 min and back out and hit brakes. I have read many times in this forum that it may be lack of proper torque on my front LCA bolts. I changed my sway bar bushings and about to change my sway end links too. It’s driving me crazy.

My question is can I torque this bolt down without hurting my recent alignment? Do I torque the bolts behind the skid plates or which bolt? I read the torque specs are about 130-135 ft/lbs?. Can I just realign the fronts only afterwards if needed?

I have a 2018 TRD off-road premium. Thanks guys.

 

[ahtoxa11]

I can't answer your questions directly, as I don't know whether it will mess up the alignment or not. Do you have aftermarket skids by chance? Those can shift and pop sometimes, even if they seem tight. I've read about that a fair amount with a few folks thinking it was the LCA but it wasn't.

Chances are, though, it's not torqued to spec since it started after alignment. I'd probably take it back to the alignment shop and explain. That way they can put it up on the rack to re-check if alignment settings changed as well as check torque.

 

[srsrogerissrs]

Yes you can. Take a torque wrench to it. Just torque the bolt and don't touch the cam. If you're paranoid that you'll mess up the alignment, take a paint pen and make marks where your current alignment is.

 

[MyanRagahis]

My question is can I torque this bolt down without hurting my recent alignment? Do I torque the bolts behind the skid plates or which bolt? I read the torque specs are about 130-135 ft/lbs?. Can I just realign the fronts only afterwards if needed?

I have a 2018 TRD off-road premium. Thanks guys.

I retorque mine every now and then at 129ft lbs. Maybe it's changed since 2016 but that was my OEM spec. But you'll be fine retorquing it and it shouldn't affect your alignment.

Just like srsrogerissrs said above, don't touch the cams. Along with the paint marker. I used Markal . Nice to see if anything is backing out on you eventually.

For the front bolts, torque the side closest to the front bumper. Then for the rear, torque the side closest to the rear bumper. Or the outsides of each arm if that makes sense. You'll see what I mean.

You may have to turn each wheel side to side to be able to get your torque wrench in there. My experience anyway.
Should be a 22mm socket.

 

[fsaral77]

I retorque mine every now and then at 129ft lbs. Maybe it's changed since 2016 but that was my OEM spec. But you'll be fine retorquing it and it shouldn't affect your alignment.

Just like srsrogerissrs said above, don't touch the cams. Along with the paint marker. I used Markal . Nice to see if anything is backing out on you eventually.

For the front bolts, torque the side closest to the front bumper. Then for the rear, torque the side closest to the rear bumper. Or the outsides of each arm if that makes sense. You'll see what I mean.

You may have to turn each wheel side to side to be able to get your torque wrench in there. My experience anyway.
Should be a 22mm socket.

Ok so hit the bolts up front where the skid plates get close? Do I need to remove the skid plates? So make my own paint marker? Markal Pens? Thanks dude.

 

[rochmpr]

What i have found is just about all places torque the bolts at full droop. They should be torqued at resting position under load. This, from my experience, will cause / eliminate the clunk

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[NoLight]

check your tierod ends. they prolly got in a hurry and left one side loose.

 

[MyanRagahis]

Ok so hit the bolts up front where the skid plates get close? Do I need to remove the skid plates? So make my own paint marker? Markal Pens? Thanks dude.

Ah, that's right, yeah, you'd have to unbolt and remove the skid plate now that I remember. It gets in the way of torqueing down the front bolts. I contemplated cutting that part off of the skid plated but I've moved on to different skid plates.

You can use a sharpie if you wanted to. That's what I did in the past at first. There are indentions on the sides of those cam tabs I think and you can line up the marking with that.
But the orange paint pen I use now is just much easier to see and I can mark everything with it.

 

[KANGZ]

Same happened to me. Tighten lower control arm bolts and nuts. Noise is gone. Just hold the bolt and tighten the nut.