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Strut, Ball joint or control arm?

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TwiztedEclipse

10+ Year Contributor
32
0
Jan 21, 2012
Dover, Delaware
Ok, i have been hearing the clunk coming from my passenger side front on my eclipse well tonight i had a friend back my car up and keep tapping the brakes to make it clunk. Well i was seeing the strut tower sway and damper fork is swaying back and forth and smacking my control arm and the bolt is there its connected. im not sure what part is bad... strut, ball joint, control arm... or something other. btw it also clunks when shifting (5-Speed) or if you let off gas then hit gas again while moving.
 
Did you check for any sort of wheel play? Jounce n' bounce? Simple things like that can tell you a lot. If I were you I'd check for loose tie-rods, loose sway bar links, upper/lower ball-joints, etc. Heck, might as well give your mounts a look while you're in there.
 
1: Grab wheel on top and bottom and try moving it. If play it is control arm but you would have to visually watch if it is upper or lower etc.
2: Grab wheel on left and right side and try moving it. If play it is either inner or outer tie-rod or if you can rotate outer tie-rod on ball and it moves somewhat easily. There is a breakaway torque spec for how tight ball should be.
3: Check swaybar link.

If it is your lower lateral(straight) control arm I would check to see if it has been replaced under a recall. My 96 GSX never had it done and Mitsu replaced both L and R for me for free :thumb:

If it is one of the control arms and not covered by Mitsu I would suggest going to rockauto.com and going with Moog.

Recalls....
Mitsubishi Eclipse Recalls, Notices, & Used Car Problems - Motor Trend Magazine
 
Thanks for the help guys, i got it on the lift today and got to looking my arc arm was bad the stud on the ball joint could bounce up and down allowing it to move. so i replaced that and bought the moog control arm you were talking about. now she is solid and dont clunk:hellyeah:. Thanks again for the suggestions and ideas they helped.
 
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