[casonm23]

Having a clunking sound on the front passenger side when going over bumps. Along with the sound, there was signs that my shock was going out, the ride was rough, the wheel seemed to bounce, etc. Therefore I figured the shock was the issue so I replaced it myself. This did fix some of the stability issues and it somewhat fixed bumps feeling rough all though not completely. However it definitely did not fix the clunking sound aswell as bumps still feeling somewhat harsh (maybe that just in my head because of the sound).

When replacing the shock, I'm decently confident I did a good job making sure everything went back in place correctly, aswell as lining everything up. However, I did notice that there were no (top and bottom) spring insulators aswell as no strut bumper. My mechanic told me that the strut bumper wouldnt cause that noise unless I was hitting really big bumps at high speeds, and online it says that not having spring insulators can cause squeaks and taps, but not necessarily loud clunks.

I definitely am not an expert, this was my first time changing a shock and I did it by watching a YouTube video. I had other service done to the car and asked the mechanic if he could check and see if he could find the problem. He said that he checked the sway bar end links and they seem fine, and he definitely thinks it's coming from the upper part of the suspension. He thinks it's something to do with the strut mount, but I just don't see how the strut mount would make that noise and couldn't find anything online about strut mounts making a clunking noise like that. He also said that clunking noises often occurs when someone doesn't put the strut back together properly, but the sound was there before I replaced the shock. However it could be the reason it sounds worse now.

Any ideas of what the issue could be? I've had two mechanic just take a look under the car too see if its an obvious problem and they didn't find anything which leads me to believe it's either something with the strut mount, or the lack of spring insulators is somehow making a crazy loud clunk. Thanks for any help!

[buck50]

Strut should have upper and lower coil spring insulators. Would suspect that may be your noise problem.