Strange clunking noise

[infantry503]

Ok so I had this same issue with my first gen but sold it before I fixed the issue. When driving down the road and hit small bumps or shifts in the pavement my truck makes a clunking noise. I thought it might have been my broken passenger side cv boot but after replacing it yesterday I have noticed the noise is still there. I can kind of feel it underneath my driver side when it happens. I have tried looking to see if there are any posts about it but everyone elses noises are pops when shifting in and out of drive and mine is when I am driving down the road. It's been wet here so I haven't climbed under my truck to see if I can see anything but it would be nice to have some sort of direction on where to look before I get under there. Thanks

 

[sockeyesalmon]

I had the same thing happen.
Check swaybar bushing and also bar end links

 

[infantry503]

I had the same thing happen.
Check swaybar bushing and also bar end links

Epic. Thanks for a solid place to start looking. Shit drove me nuts on my 1st gen

 

[octanejunkie]

Steering rack bushings too

 

[thecole1098]

Check lower and upper ball joints as well.

 

[HiLife]

Check shock bushings too. For me, it was failing lower shock bushings that were the source of my clunking noise.

 

[octanejunkie]

Just shake down the whole damn truck lol

 

[AntleredRuin]

I had a brake caliper mounting bolt fall out.
Caliber banged against the wheel over bumps. Definitely caused a clunk.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[psraff]

Just shake down the whole damn truck lol

Dang, you beat me to it! LOL Another Front End Clunk. So many possibilities, so many people scratching their heads (me included).

Just start by removing the whole front end. Then replace one piece at a time and drive it. If the clunk doesn't appear, that wasn't the piece. Add another piece back to your truck and try again.

I'm only laughing, because I've got one also. I've also got pretty much a whole front end in a shopping cart ready to buy.... LOL

 

[octanejunkie]

I had a brake caliper mounting bolt fall out.
Caliber banged against the wheel over bumps. Definitely caused a clunk.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Top or bottom? (Not a sexual reference)

Also that makes for a horrific clunk when braking.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[AntleredRuin]

Top or bottom? (Not a sexual reference)

Also that makes for a horrific clunk when braking.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Haha it was the bottom bolt on the passenger side caliper. Big clunk when going over bumps (oddly enough, I did not notice any issues braking).
The issue was my fault, though. I had done the TBU a couple weeks prior and had apparently not torqued the bolts well enough. So the brakes probably were worse, I was just still used to my crappier stock ones.

When I'd reverse, it'd 'bind' and then jolt back because the caliper would wedge against the wheel, and finally release.

 

[octanejunkie]

Haha it was the bottom bolt on the passenger side caliper. Big clunk when going over bumps (oddly enough, I did not notice any issues braking).
The issue was my fault, though. I had done the TBU a couple weeks prior and had apparently not torqued the bolts well enough. So the brakes probably were worse, I was just still used to my crappier stock ones.

When I'd reverse, it'd 'bind' and then jolt back because the caliper would wedge against the wheel, and finally release.

Same thing happend to me years ago, a shop did a brake job on my work truck and halfway down the freeway, hit the brakes and the truck jerks and bucks like all hell was breaking loose. Turns out THEY forgot to tighten the driver's side lower caliper bolt and it FELL OUT while I was driving - I was more scared after I realized what it was and drove 1 MPH back to their shop with my flashers on.

Moral of the story: make a list, torque it twice.

 

[electroCrunch]

It looks like you're lifted. Are you running a front anti-roll bar? I had consistent popping/clunking, similar to what you've described, ever since I got lifted. I finally figured out it was my sway end links. I don't know if mine were "bad" to begin with, they didn't really have a ton of play when I removed them. However, I did replace them with longer end links to compensate for my lift. After I put these longer end links on, I've never heard the clunk again.



That was my experience, but as others have said there are a lot of possibility. Getting it on jacks, moving things around, checking torques, etc. is going to help... but in my experience it was sway end link related.

Good luck!!

 

[infantry503]

It looks like you're lifted. Are you running a front anti-roll bar? I had consistent popping/clunking, similar to what you've described, ever since I got lifted. I finally figured out it was my sway end links. I don't know if mine were "bad" to begin with, they didn't really have a ton of play when I removed them. However, I did replace them with longer end links to compensate for my lift. After I put these longer end links on, I've never heard the clunk again.



That was my experience, but as others have said there are a lot of possibility. Getting it on jacks, moving things around, checking torques, etc. is going to help... but in my experience it was sway end link related.

Good luck!!

I'm about to do a bigger lift so I will make sure everything is torqued to spec

 

[thezentree]

My 4Runner did that after I didn't tighten the swaybar nut enough. My Sierra did it when the upper ball joint was bad.

 

[thecole1098]

In addition to ball joints wearing and having play, clunking also happens with the swaybar end link nuts that fasten them to the frame as many others have mentioned. Mine actually clunked mostly when the suspension would flex one way because the passenger side sway bar link was loose.