amoffitt

Hello,

Recently when I put my car in reverse and turn the wheel counter clock-wise to back out I will sometimes here a clunk of sorts in the right front area. I had it in the dealership for some other things today and they informed me that it is the Front Sway Bar Links. The car has about 122K miles.

I was curious to know if anyone else has had this issue as well as to get a second opinion aside from the dealership. Thanks in advance guys.

bigrob126

I just changed mine at all 4 corners. My left front was not tight enough, and started clunking while driving, all I had to do was tighten it up. The front ones require 72lbs of torque, and you must have a star or hex bit to hold the shaft while you tighten, or the whole thing will spin. Kind of a pain. I wrenched on em pretty good now, so all should be OK. All 4 were like $80 shipped from Rock auto. I would check to see if yours got loose, although with 122k on em, it probably isn't a bad idea to change them.

amoffitt

Good info Rob. I will check that out. It just seems to be the right front.

bigrob126

That one may have loosened....these front ones link the sway bar to strut housing. They have a ball joint at each end and the joint will get pretty sloppy with age. That could be what is clunking, or the nut may have come loose at one of the ends and it is moving in the mounting hole. The latter is what my issue was when I installed them. I didn't tighten them enough. If you google them, you will see what they look.

amoffitt

I will take the wheel off and look at it. Hopefully this weekend at the latest.

rocketman4321

Haven't done it on this car yet, but on my others the car had to be on the ground to check the links, or otherwise they're too loaded with the wheels drooping down. Reach in an grab the link to check for play. The other test is to drive--on one side only--over a 2x4 in the driveway. A clunk at that point is likely to be sway bar, though it could be a ball joint (but that's easy to test with the car lifted).

MB Marko

I feel like I have the same issue! I'm waiting for the weather to get nicer to change them out. where are you guys getting your parts from? I see pelican parts has them for 29$ each. I wonder what the dealership charges for them.

superangrypenguin

You need to get the hydromounts replaced. That will fix it.

bigrob126

Go with Rock auto. big selection.

MB Marko

this sounds expensive lol.

the front struts at the dealership are $100 for the pair. not so bad, apparently there are 2 hydro mounts one is like $600 and the phone cut off on the other price so i have no clue.

superangrypenguin

Seriously? I mean, are you absolutely sure?

I had mine replaced under warranty (have EDW), and when I threw the part numbers from the work order into Google it was like a $20 part, and I was sad because I had warranty

amoffitt

I checked the links last night. They seem to be secured top and bottom but I was able to twist them clockwise and counter-clockwise a bit but I think that is normal. I am not certain what hydro-mounts are.

bigrob126

FYI, the sway bar links on our car do no require the suspension to be loaded. There at are no bushings involved, as in say a control arm, that need to be at ride height when tightened.

bigrob126

They should spin in either direction due to the ball joint at each end. As they wear, they move rather easily. What you need to check is the nut at each end. Put a box end wrench on each nut and see if it moves easily or not. The whole spindle/shaft will turn, but if it's really hard to get the wrench to move, they should be OK as far as tightness goes. You will need a star bit in the end of the spindle to hold it, while you tighten the nut to really see where you are.

Funkwagen

Two (or three..) things that it could be

1. Failing sway bar links, the ball joints at the ends of the links are worn out and loose, making the clunking noise - If you find a cheaper alternative to dealership pricing, I recommend avoiding the Febi brand alternatives. Usually Febi has been fine for me, but two sets of sway bar links from them wore out and started clunking within 15,000km
2. They weren't torqued properly when installed and have come loose - I've fixed this by torquing them properly and using a little bit of blue loctite as peace of mind, haven't had issues since.
3. The hydromounts/rubber bushings of the large front control arm have worn out. You can usually tell because there's an oily film around them and cracks in the rubber. The cracks in the rubber may only show up when the suspension has some load on it.

Interesting thing about the third possibility is that in later models of W204s there was a revision to the control arm- rubber cups/boots were added to the ends of the control arm bushing, apparently because in certain instances a knocking noise could be heard while turning and reversing. I guess the bushing would sort of hit it's mount on the subframe? I had this loosely explained to me by my friend/mechanic at the dealership. I ended up putting them on when I replaced my bushings and I've never heard that noise again, so it must have fixed that problem

DEONDRE

I'm currently having the same issue so I jacked the car up today and tested to see if it was the tire rod and it didn't shake so I turned the steering wheel and notice that my bushings for my stabilizer link was torn.
So I ordered a new link and now I'm currently waiting to install them. Hopefully that solves the problem.