Anyone know whats going on? My car just started doing this as well. I have searched for several weeks and found nothing.

All the suspension is clocked correctly, properly torqued, new springs and struts. All bolts for the brakes are good, wheels all torqued good, checked and I have no drive shaft problems, everything on the rear diff is good.

Pulled everything out of the trunk to make sure a socket was not rolling around.

Sometimes happens when I back up and then go forward, not always. Sometimes happens after I have been moving forward and have to take off kind of quick. I dont feel anything, no vibration at all in the car when it does it, its only audible. One quick pop/clank. Sounds like its coming from the rear but hard to tell.

I am dumbfounded as to what it could be.

I had the same problem on the drivers side, turned out to be the two bolts holding the control arm to the frame. I had to loosen them then retighten, that clunk went away.

How old is your clutch? I was getting a clunk sound, maybe more of a chirp noise when I would start out in 1st gear, or reverse. My clutch was old and I found where the TOB bearing can make similar noises when its on its last leg. New clutch, TOB, fork etc. took care of that weird noise. Just throwing that out there for something else to consider.

I just had my clutch, fork and ball replaced.

i had a similar problem it turned out that my lower control arms ball joint had worn out and was causing a tapping or creaking sound hope that helps


matt
97 gsx

I also had a clunk that only happened when starting in first gear or backing up. Thought maybe a broken motor mount, but it turned out to be the rear motor mount bolt (by firewall) had come loose and the mount arm from the gearbox was clunking on the crossmember. Really easy fix!

Check your ball joints... all of them.

I sure hope one of my control arm ball joints are not going bad, i just replaced all four, 6 months ago (oem $500)

Wildman95GS-T said:

I sure hope one of my control arm ball joints are not going bad, i just replaced all four, 6 months ago (oem $500)

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Sounds like it was just something loose. Usually when you hear knockign sounds like that though, its something in the suspension... i.e. control arms .

Drubble said:

How old is your clutch? I was getting a clunk sound, maybe more of a chirp noise when I would start out in 1st gear, or reverse. My clutch was old and I found where the TOB bearing can make similar noises when its on its last leg. New clutch, TOB, fork etc. took care of that weird noise. Just throwing that out there for something else to consider.

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Clutch is a Clutch Masters 4 puck unsprung with less than 700 miles on it. New ToB, New Fork, New Ball.

Sound is coming from the rear best I can tell.

Lateral arms are new. Control arms are not ( curved ones ).

Ill check over my mounts again but I did that once and everything was secure.

Checked out the motor mount bolts and they were tight, those rear one's are a sob to get to, especially when the motor is still hot. I am taking a trip over the 4th, when i get back i will put this girl on ramps, let everything cool down and check all the bolt, control arms and motor mounts. I have found out that sometimes you have to loosen the bolt then re-tighten it to get rid of those strange noise gremlin's.

Wildman95GS-T said:

I sure hope one of my control arm ball joints are not going bad, i just replaced all four, 6 months ago (oem $500)

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did you replace your uppers on both sides? i had the same problem and changed out my two lower arms on both sides only to find that the upper ball joints were the cause.

no i only replaced the 4 lower lateral and control arms, the boots were split open. The lateral control arms were not that expensive so i got oem, made the mistake because of the high oem price for the L shaped control arms and purchased the cheep ones on e-bay. the boots split open one week later. Bit the bullet and ordered the oem replacements from Rockville Mitsu. . I will look at my upper control arms this afternoon, thanks for the heads up

no problem. good luck

So.. Since the laws in my new state of residence are so lax, I decided to pull the last section off my exhaust to see what my car sounds like with a 3" straight pipe. While down there doing that, I noticed something, which I will get a picture of later on today. There is a heat shield that protects the gas tank from the exhaust, looks like one of the mounts for the N1 has been hitting this shield as it now has a dent in it. Since the motor torques to the firewall when you take off, this would then push the mount into the shield, causing my knock. I am going to trim the little part that has been hit and see if the sound goes away. I wont know until Wensday at the earliest as I am waiting on my new 90A Alt.

All DSM alts. are 90 amps. I hope you're not paying a premium.
But certainly do post back, I can;t stand all the odd noises these cars make. Crossing one more off the list is just plain bliss.

OK. I have been driving around for a few days with the little part of the heat shield trimmed. I have not been able to get as much driving as I want because I am having a few little issues dialing in my 1680cc injectors ( they go lean at 3000rpm up hill at 10-14% throttle ). I have managed to get some driving in though and the clunk has not come back. I think its the engine torquing just enough for the hanger on my exhaust to hit the shield. pictures below.

PieEyedPiper said:

All DSM alts. are 90 amps. I hope you're not paying a premium.
But certainly do post back, I can;t stand all the odd noises these cars make. Crossing one more off the list is just plain bliss.

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Weird, my stocker was 75 amp.

i thought lower ball joint replacement was a recall

Even 1g's can suffer this too. for the longest time with my stock exhaust I could hear a clunk when first backing up and I believe it was the engine tourqing causing the exhaust to move enough to hit the heat shields. Since then I made urethane motor mounts and installed a custom side exhaust exhaust and removed the heat shieldsthe problem has 99% been eliminated. now on slight ocassion the exhaust will hit the pinch weld on the passanger side quarterpanel but the original problem has been corrected.

BleedingSilver said:

Even 1g's can suffer this too. for the longest time with my stock exhaust I could hear a clunk when first backing up and I believe it was the engine tourqing causing the exhaust to move enough to hit the heat shields. Since then I made urethane motor mounts and installed a custom side exhaust exhaust and removed the heat shieldsthe problem has 99% been eliminated. now on slight ocassion the exhaust will hit the pinch weld on the passanger side quarterpanel but the original problem has been corrected.

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I have poly mounts as well, I think the movement is because with my o2 housing, my exhaust was moved forward about 1 inch at the most which caused the problem.

The_EE said:

Weird, my stocker was 75 amp.

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Thats where the confusion starts. It says 75amp, except its an identical unit in form and function to the Canadian DSM alts. which are rated for 90amps.
Conclusion? All DSM alts are the same(at least for the same engine) , thus all DSM alts are 90amps.

I wasn't the one who made the connection that lead to this discovery, but the info is all over the board.

A great way to "amp" up the stock setup would be to do a BIG 3 wiring upgrade. Think of it as upgrading your exhaust.. but for your alt. Similar to the fuel-pump rewire.