Clunking, Grinding, & Squeaking

[zacwel]

Hello all!

I have a 2020 Hatchback Sport with 62,000 miles.
For the last 5 days, I have had a clunk, grind, and squeak coming from what sounds like the front driver side. It started as a grind/rattle in low RPMs, such as when in reverse. It has since progressed to a slight but nearly constant grinding when moving, and still the rattle when idling and hitting low RPMs.

The day before it started, I changed my oil so my first guess was that I put my under tray on wrong. Nope.
So then I thought maybe it was the front sway bar walking (even though I had the whiteline lateral locks installed). I installed them originally on the interior of the bushings through the holes of the subframe because I installed them after installing the sway bar. The sway bar was walking, so last night I took off the lateral locks from the interior, centered the sway bay, and moved the locks to the exterior right against the bushings. STILL THE NOISE.
Last night I took off the brake caliper as well just to rule another thing out and all looks good there.

At this point I'm catastrophizing and thinking it's a wheel bearing, CV joint, or maybe the lower control bushings. I drive 160 miles a day since September so worn components aren't out of the question.

Any thoughts or input is greatly appreciated!!

-Zac

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[Sadé Smoove]

Hello all!

I have a 2020 Hatchback Sport with 62,000 miles.
For the last 5 days, I have had a clunk, grind, and squeak coming from what sounds like the front driver side. It started as a grind/rattle in low RPMs, such as when in reverse. It has since progressed to a slight but nearly constant grinding when moving, and still the rattle when idling and hitting low RPMs.

The day before it started, I changed my oil so my first guess was that I put my under tray on wrong. Nope.
So then I thought maybe it was the front sway bar walking (even though I had the whiteline lateral locks installed). I installed them originally on the interior of the bushings through the holes of the subframe because I installed them after installing the sway bar. The sway bar was walking, so last night I took off the lateral locks from the interior, centered the sway bay, and moved the locks to the exterior right against the bushings. STILL THE NOISE.
Last night I took off the brake caliper as well just to rule another thing out and all looks good there.

At this point I'm catastrophizing and thinking it's a wheel bearing, CV joint, or maybe the lower control bushings. I drive 160 miles a day since September so worn components aren't out of the question.

Any thoughts or input is greatly appreciated!!

-Zac

It's funny we literally have the same amount of miles and I think our cars are making the same noise in the same spot I swapped in new control arms and just went ahead and put coilovers in and front wheel bearings. Start with the bushings in the control arms and then work your way up to the struts last. If you're not hearing a rolling humming/ howling sound? I don't think it's wheel bearings. I did however, have that kind of sound in addition to the clunking and rattling so I change those as well. Now I'm mostly noise free but I can't tell if I'm hearing slight rubbing now since I'm lowered. I swear there's still a slight clunking sound on every little bump and I'm wondering if it's CV joints. Suspension seems to go out on these cars around 50k miles

 

[zacwel]

I'm lowered too on D2 springs, which lowers about 2" and I never rubbed/scrubbed.
I'm at work now but I'm hoping to figure it out this weekend! I'll update if I do!!

 

[86salmon]

The three people in my car club running d2 have had axle damage and went with different springs or coils

Best of luck

 

[zacwel]

Interesting.... is it because it drops soo much?
What springs did they swap to?

 

[zacwel]

The three people in my car club running d2 have had axle damage and went with different springs or coils

Best of luck

Welp, if it turns out to be the axle, I'll be replacing that and then swapping to Whiteline's lowering spring.

 

[86salmon]

Welp, if it turns out to be the axle, I'll be replacing that and then swapping to Whiteline's lowering spring.

They got bc coils and Eibach prokit, but I think Whiteline will be good too

 

[@that_1redcivic]

Clunking is a sign of a damaged bushing. Don't know if you're still lowered or not but if you go super low the axle hits off of the control arm making it "clunk" as well.

 

[borcth]

I just started getting this gnarly clunking front driver side. I had a clunk in right rear going over speed bumps and the occasional street reflector. Took it to shop and they seemed to have fixed that, but the drive home from shop, the driver side front started clunking. I can almost feel it in the steering wheel. What the f. It was fine till I took it to the shop. I'm on the eibach pro kit, white line front and rear sway bar, accord rear end links and whiteline front sway bar end links. I have lateral locks too. I'm hoping it'll go away just as suddenly as it appeared. Been nearly a total of 2 years with pro kit and rear sway bar setup. The FSB was done during clutch swap back in Setp/Oct time frame. I already called shop and made an appointment, but they're book up for 3 weeks! Damn..

I only have about ~35k miles too.

If I had a garage, I'd jack that thing up on ramps and start tinkering. Alas, I don't. Apartment life is a bitch when it comes to working on cars.

 

[zacwel]

Welp, installed a new axle this morning and same noise so that wasn’t it. And I was really confident too.

Must be a LCA or upper-shock bushing.

 

[zacwel]

For the sake of documentation, my RMM was a tad loose.

In one of my first differential diags, I grabbed the RMM and shook it, it felt solid so I ruled it out. But after 2-3 weeks of frustration I got under the car while it was on jacks, had my dad gas it in reverse then hard brake and the engine would torque-move a lot. I pushed a skrewdriver on to the trans/transaxle to try and feel where the vibration/clunk was coming from (I don't have access to a automotive stethoscope), but when I pushed hard on the trans the noise stopped. Still, the RMM was not moving when shook by hand. The bolt that connects the RMM to the block was snug, but was able to be tightened more. After tightening it with gorilla strength, the noises went away. I know I definitely tightened to torque spec when I installed it, but it does have >30,000 hard miles on it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ if it happens again in another 30,000 miles, red loctite!

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