[Funsub]

How I fixed my strut clunk with the help from a Senior VW tech and VW tech!

I have completely moded my suspension beyond the factory warranty, about five thousand miles later my right rear strut started to make a lot of noise and progressively got WORSE. With my cousin being a vw tech I called him on a Saturday in a panic saying I needed to bring it in before I buy coilovers because I can’t deal with this noise. (which would have been nice)

Tried to solve it by lubing and tightening everything in the rear of my car… Lowered it down Clunk Clunk WTF !!! One of the senior mechanics must have heard my frustration with the matter and came over. After explaining the situation he said it’s probably loose on the inside bottom not the outside top or outside bottom. Hmm I wonder

What he had us do-

1. Take the top three bolts off the strut mount. This allowed the strut to lower so we could get an impact on it. (I had to undo my sway bar to get the strut to lower)
2. Loosen the center bolt on the shaft until the bolt was even with the top of the center shaft.
3. In the center of the shaft you will see a spot for an allen key. We put that allen key on the shaft and zapped with an impact it for about ten seconds. This spins the shaft but at the same time tightens the internal assembly up. Since the internal assembly spins freely anyway there is no way to do damage to the strut.
4. Reassembled everything and went for a drive.

Silence everyone…..on I mean there was silence, the only thing I could hear was the beautiful tone of my exhaust. Felt like a new car………again.

This helped me?? Not sure if it will help anyone else….

Think about it….. Makes sense.

O recently my rear left has started; I know how I’m going to fix it.

Thank you to rich at northeast auto outlet!!

Hope this helps someone else ..

[twiSTies]

what you had wasn't "strut clunk" as is commonly referred to around here. You had a loose strut. Strut clunk is a physical issue with the strut seal allowing dirt and debris into the strut, damaging it and causing stiction.

[wdb]

I'll wager that your clunk returns within 3K miles.

I'll also wager that all you really accomplished (not considering any damage you might have done with such liberal use of an impact gun) was to move the strut body sufficiently to get some lubricant on the outer shaft surface. You can do the same thing in 5 minutes with a floor jack under the rear diff and some white grease. I do it every couple of months.

[Funsub]

I do think this was the dreaded strut cluck!
Considering I did this about five months ago on my daily driver and no signs of returning, I don't see this as a temporary fix!
Also considering I didn't apply any lude to the actual strut this cannot be accomplished with a floor jack and five minutes.

Also this is an actual mechanical fix not just a lude/coverup fix. I do feel this is a beneficial to anyone experiencing this noise.

Consider this: I also developed a noise in my sway bar. The fix I thought was to tighten everything up, didn’t work; noise was still there. What did work was lubing the end links. In this case I except lubing as the fix because there is nothing mechanically loose or wrong.
In the case of the strut clunk you can feel this problem physically, correct me if I’m wrong it feels as though something is loose.

Before tightening the center shaft I could stand on the rear sill of the rear right door and bounce… hearing and feeling the clucking. After tightening up the strut the feeling/noise was gone.

If this not the strut clunk!! Then I’m sure there are people out there with the same problem discounting it as just another strut clunk. I recommend looking into it.

I would not discount this fix as another hope for gold, it worked.

[Risk3233]

A loose strut center nut could sound like a strut clunk. I agree that what you have done is "tighten" the strut to the mount and rotated the inernals/seals to lube the dry areas.

IMO the clunk will return some time, not sure when. The clunk that returns will likely be caused by something different from that which you "corrected."

Any future clunks will likely be caused by the crappy Subaru strut design.

I'm glad it fixed your problem.

[Funsub]

Agree

Tightening the top center strut bolt did nothing it was already tight with the clunk still present.

Just so you know it took a couple spins from the impact to get the clunk to disappear but it eventually did.

At first I thought the same thing..it would return in time. That’s why I didn’t run home and post the fix FIVE months ago. But after five months of no clunking in the right rear I’m convinced that it is fixed.

Now the left one is starting..AWW

[Risk3233]

Re-lubing the strut shaft would eliminate the clunk for me. I was doing it monthly when I would change to race wheels for my local Solo events. I never knew how long I could go between lubings before the clunk would return.

I did this for a few months, but ultimately went with Ohlins fixed perches.

[Turninconcepts.com]

Tony has been running my stock struts with GF210 springs on his WRX for about 20K miles now. Keep in mind they already had a decent amount of miles on them from being on my car. Before he put them on he disassembled the rear struts. Cleaned them out, and then really repacked the seals with a ncie thick grease (I think he used HP800).

He has yet to have the clunk in those 20K miles.

As for when they were on my car I just cleaned the shafts, applied a light grease to them with every other oil change.

[Risk3233]

I agree that greasing works, but you have to be willing to do that on something that I feel you shouldn't have to.

What if car manufacturers told new customers that the car is fantastic, but every now and then you have to grease the strut shafts? Most would probably consider a different car.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Risk3233

I agree that greasing works, but you have to be willing to do that on something that I feel you shouldn't have to.

There's another whole thread in which that point has been discussed for a couple of years. It's in General -> Warranty. This is the tech forum, let's talk about tech.