Have a 98 OBW that has a clunk when braking. When you use brakes lightly no sound. When you step on them hard it will "clunk" once and then no more noise. I feel/hear the noise through the drivers side floorboard. Stopping is not affected at all, but the noise is loud and annoying.

 

Is there anything special to changing the rear bushing? Looks like 2 bolts for the bracket and one that goes into the end, through the bushing and into the control arm?

 

When I remove those bolts, do I need to support the control arm at all or will it stay up?

 

Thanks in advance. Looking to do it next weekend, hopefully in someones garage and not our parking lot!

 

 

Matt

You're sure it's not loose brake caliper bolts or missing anti-rattle springs on the pads?

 

The control arm actually has to be forced down so you can get clearance to remove the nut on the end. And it is on REALLY tight. I tried and tried to break mine loose with a breaker bar, and eventually gave in a borrowed an impact gun from one of the techs at work. And even that took about 20 seconds on full trigger just to crack the damn nut loose. (and this was with a 1/2" drive Ingersol gun) Once it was loose it came off easy enough, but getting it loose is the real work. Use a cheater pipe and heat if you don't have access to air tools.

Fairtax-Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. I'm fairly sure it isn't something located on the wheel. There is no rattle or squeal or noise from the actual caliper/brake area. It only happens when you apply the brakes fairly hard such as when a light turns read or someone pulls out in front of you. It is a single clunk and then done for each brake usage never more than once, and usually near the end of the stop. Almost like pressure or torque builds up and then clunk, releases. I also can feel/hear it pretty distinctly through the drivers side floorboard which led me to suspect the rear bushing. I am going to do a brake job on it too, as there is pulsing in the brakes as well. I think a rear disk is warped. So I will check everything out then that is associated with the brakes. I kinda hope it is brake related, as the dang bushing is 80-90$.

 

Will let you know what I find out.

 

Matt

Fairtax was right-partially.

 

I did some more looking around last night. Couldn't figure out why if I braked hard, heard the clunk, let off the brake and hit it hard again why it wouldn't make the noise. After lloking around, the reason soon showed itself.

 

My big maglite I carry under my drivers seat turned sideways and was rolling around. When I stopped hard, it rolled forward and hit the heating vent under the drivers seat which I could feel in the floorboard and when I accelarated it rolled backward waiting for me to stop so it could roll forward and smack the vent again.

 

I feel like a doofus:rolleyes:, but did save 80$ by not buying the bushing!

 

Thanks for the advice to check stuff again. I appreciate it!

 

Matt

Love it! You have to have one of those moments every now and then. At least you found it before replacing parts and not getting the desired result.

 

Some of these have been on my list of wants for a long time, but I always forget about them when I'm at the hardware store.

http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=ML34