Loud clank from driver's rear side...

[99v6cam]

Whenever I turn right, hit a bump or the weight of the car shifts to the left, I hear a loud clanking noise (metal on metal) coming from the driver's rear side. At first I thought it was the brakes but now it only happens when I turn right, etc. WTF is that?!? Does anyone know??? When I put my loudmouth on a looked at all the suspension and the brakes and didnt see anything that looked wrong, or feel loose or anything like that. Help!!!

[hockeyman]

Look at the bushings on your sfc's, swaybars, panhard bar, broken spring, and check your shocks.

[DarkEcho]

HAHAHA u have a loudmouth?? yea me too, it seems like on mine, ur rear axle hitting the pipe. check after a couple months and you will see a part of the dirty pipe thats clean scratched silver color, it will be on the bottom of ur exhaust pipe and the top of ur axle lol i saw it when i did my shocks, im hoping that withnew springs it will reduce the slammage... im tellin u dude, same thing happens to me but only on speedbumps... maybe urs is loose cuz mine doesnt clang wen i go right.... anyways check it out, imthinking of packing some kinda foam thing around the part that hits maybe it will save my pipe!

[Bass482]

It could also be the warning strip of your rear brake pad. I had a similar problem and it turned out to be the brake pad warning strip was contacting the rotor when I turned.

[99v6cam]

Ooooooo, a warning strip, that could be it because before it seemed like it was my brakes but now its only when i turn! I know its not the exhaust bc it was happening before i put it on. Is there any (easy) way I can check to see if it's the warning strip?

[Ian]

CHECK YOUR LCA's! really, thats what mine was doing. grab the LCA from the side of the car and try to pull it back and forth. escpecially if you still have wheel hop, it can break the welds on your LCA's

[Bass482]

Originally posted by 99v6cam:
Ooooooo, a warning strip, that could be it because before it seemed like it was my brakes but now its only when i turn! I know its not the exhaust bc it was happening before i put it on. Is there any (easy) way I can check to see if it's the warning strip?

Stick your head under the rear of your car and look at the back of the rotor. If it is making contact you will see a bright line going all the way around.

[99v6cam]

Sorry if I sounds like a dumbass, but wtf is an LCA??? I'm not too sharp on all the acronynms. I don't see anything wrong with the rotor, no bright line...

[ June 16, 2004, 04:59 PM: Message edited by: 99v6cam ]

[Ian]

Originally posted by 99v6cam:
Sorry if I sounds like a dumbass, but wtf is an LCA??? I'm not too sharp on all the acronynms. I don't see anything wrong with the rotor, no bright line...

LCA - Lower control arm. the thing that goes from your subframe to your rear, right inside the tire.

(pic of my Lakewood LCA's second pic down http://www.freewebs.com/hedzilla/modificationlist.htm )

copy and paste the link if it doesnt work

[99v6cam]

Hmm, I'll take a look at it tomorrow, someone else said that I might have bad bushing on my sway bar.

[Bass482]

Ian - In reading your modification page, I noticed your thoughts on the 19mm sway. Rather than taking it off, if you added a 32mm or 35mm front your would gain the balance of the car's original geometry back and would no longer have oversteer and, most importantly, you would have the cornering ability you were originally seeking.

[V6Bob]

"Ian - In reading your modification page, I noticed your thoughts on the 19mm sway. Rather than taking it off, if you added a 32mm or 35mm front your would gain the balance of the car's original geometry back and would no longer have oversteer and, most importantly, you would have the cornering ability you were originally seeking."

This seems so logical, but it won't work. Because the bigger front sway reduces camber change it doesn't change the balance of the car toward understeer much, if at all.

A V8 has a 19mm rear because the bigger front sway AND the big front springs AND the more forward weight distribution overload the front tires. The 19mm rear sends more cornering load to the rear to compensate.

On a V6 with stock springs (especially a 98-up) the 19mm rear just overloads the rear tires, causing the oversteer Ian has seen.

Sway bars are a very tricky mod. The big rear bar may actually feel good in normal driving, then it up and bites you in some situations (emergency swerve, rain, etc.).

[Ian]

v6bob is right yet again. he told me that what i was seeing with the bar was totally correct. fine in straight lines, somewhat good in corners and stuff, but hard cornering would cause it to drift and rain just sucked.

w/o springs and proper suspension, and consulting V6bob first, im never doing anything to my swaybars except grease the bushings.

[99v6cam]

Checked out the rear sway bar, the bushings, the LCAs and shocks and nothing looks wrong. I think I'm going to go ahead and get new brake pads b/c I need new ones and I did noticed the "bright line" that Bass482 was talking about and it was on both rotors on the inside (or center, whatever you wanna call it) of them. It's on both though and I only hear it on one side but I'm gonna go ahead and do it and hope the noise stops.

[Bass482]

If you want to make absolute sure before you spend money, you can take the wheel off and pull the caliper off so the pads are loose and check the thickness of the inside pad. It should be obvious then if the warning strip is contacting the rotor.