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1st off, sorry if this is in the wrong spot but not sure if it's a suspension problem or a drivetrain one.

Well, after I dropped my car with the pro-kit I noticed very shortly after the switch a slight clunking/rattling coming from what sounds like the drivers side truck area. It sounds like in the area of the strut assembly at the top. Anyway, I drove it like that for a while and a few weeks back I decided to re-due the assembly on that side as I thought that was my problem. It seemed to "improve" it but it came back strong shortly after. By the way, it didn't do it every bump or everytime I turned.. It's actually pretty random. So yesterday I decided to switch my back strut assembly's just to be able to rule out it being the strut. I switched them and as soon as I started to pull out of my drive way it started rattling again from the same spot I've ruled out it being the spolier, speakers, exhaust (it doesn't move hardly at all), strut assembly's (I think) and anything that could have been loose in my trunk. Tonight I took everything out of the trunk (tools, car jacks, axel etc lol) to pick up my mothers day gift and oh my God, it rattled constently, even on a straight perfect road. So anyway, sorry for the long post, was just trying to be descriptive. Thanks for any help guys

if this only started after the switch, the only thing that you would have disconnected that I can think of rattling is the brake line. Silly question... did you bolt that back on to the strut assembly??????

Yup yup, I even remember it being a 10mm bolt

OH!!!! did you torque the bolts? that is actually a real important thing that I ran into problems with also...

Not uh, I do have them as tight as I can get them though. I wouldn't think I could get the other 3 assembly's any tighter than that one, know what I mean ?

I ran into some rattling problems with my friends car not having them torqued to 70ft/lbs, and just so I'm clear, I'm referring to the two bolts that connect to the spindle/hubs.
You can get a cheap torque wrench at any autostore I assume (got mine for $15 at Kragen/Checkers/Schucks).

Yeah, those are the bolts I figured you were talking about. I really don't think that is it but I guess it wouldn't hurt to invest in one anyway.

Bump...I have a day off tomorrow and would really like to fix this. Anybody got any other suggestions on what could possibably be my problem ? Oh, and I had those 2 bolts mentioned above torqued for me at work today... Rattled all the way home

you may need a new upper mount/ or fill the mount, go to the How To section and look for rattling struts or about filling them. I think that's a pretty common problem with Neons.

Another common problem and one that's actually overlooked....
When assembling the rear struts, you HAVE to hold the strut shaft assembly at the top with the proper wrench, and tighten the nut just below it.....
If you use just and airgun with vise grips on the shaft, you will not tighten the large nut down totally, and this will cause a clunking noise in the rear....

I lowered my car as well and started to get the "clunking" noise. I took the tire off and then took the calipur off to find that the rear pad that goes into the piston of the calipur had only 1 prong left when it is supposed to have 3.

Needless to say I am doing the rear brake pads this weekend!

BlackRoseRacing wrote:Another common problem and one that's actually overlooked....
When assembling the rear struts, you HAVE to hold the strut shaft assembly at the top with the proper wrench, and tighten the nut just below it.....
If you use just and airgun with vise grips on the shaft, you will not tighten the large nut down totally, and this will cause a clunking noise in the rear....

I did mine the same way as "daaboots" showed in his how-to with a set-up like this...



Picture courtesy of daaboots. And that wouldn't explain why after I switched the struts the same side is still making the noise, right ?

BigDutch wrote:I lowered my car as well and started to get the "clunking" noise. I took the tire off and then took the calipur off to find that the rear pad that goes into the piston of the calipur had only 1 prong left when it is supposed to have 3.

Needless to say I am doing the rear brake pads this weekend!

I have rear drums

Read....

http://www.srtforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45087

http://www.srtforums.com/forums/archive ... 94463.html

I thought there was a how-to on SRTforms but I cant seem to find it right now.

Here's the link that shows you how to construct that device in the post above http://forum.2gn.org/viewtopic.php?t=10341

Good luck

here it is.... http://forum.2gn.org/viewtopic.php?t=9606