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2010 2011 BMW 5 Series Forum F10 F10 Technical Topics Wheels / Tires / Suspension / Brakes Clunking noise from the front suspension
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      05-31-2023, 04:12 AM   #1
Anwar1995
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Clunking noise from the front suspension

Hello everyone,

Few weeks ago I took my 535i to my local BMW specialist shop to replace rotors on all corners and a cooling pipe that is connected to the block near the turbo on one end and the other end is connected to the water pump (part# 11537599234). In order to replace that part, the technicians had to remove the passenger side engine mount, exhaust, catalyst and disconnect the sway bar. After the job is done and everything is connected back, I started feeling a very noticable clunky noise coming from the front suspension. So I requested a look over again after the job.

We found the sway bar bushes totally worn and as typical BMW fashion, the bushes come with the sway bar as one piece. However we found the bushes being sold separately made by VAICO which seems like OE quality. We bought those and installed them but there was no difference at all.

We then suspected the sway bar end links to be the issue so we ordered those made by LEMFORDER. after installation the steering felt really nice and tighter than before but the noise was still present and very noticable.

Then we suspected a loose bolt from the previous jobs so we went checking every nut and bolt we can lay eyes on from underneath the car with an impact gun trying to find one that is loose but every one seemed to be tight. After that I test drove the car but still the noise is present.

To paint a clearer picture about the noise. Its basically whenever driving on uneven road (especially gravel roads with articulations) you can hear and feel a clunk (on the floor) as the front tires move vertically on the imperfections of the road. Moreover it is also noticeable whenever I steer to the right semi aggressively. When turning left nothing happens.

Anyone has any experience of something similar to this and can help out? Thanks alot in advance!
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      06-06-2023, 06:12 PM   #2
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From your description its sounds like a bad wheel bearing. The give away is that you get the sound more noticeably when turning the wheel.

#2 would be to torque the steering rack bolts it sometimes gets loose and can clunk.

#3 I don't know if your awd, but poping/clunking sounds can be a bad xfer case.

#4 bad strut bearings

#5 bad tension strut.

Are the wheels loose when on a lift? Take it to someone who knows suspension.
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      06-07-2023, 04:49 AM   #3
Anwar1995
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Thecastle I might have not mentioned this before but the noise that I am refering to in this post is not constantly happening or continuous roaring. In the case of turning right, it will be a single knock and that will be it till I straighten the steering wheel back to center, steer right again and you will hear a single clunk once and so on an so forth.

My 535i is actually RWD version. and the lift that they have is a 2 post lift where the tires are lifted from the ground.
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      06-07-2023, 09:05 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anwar1995 View Post
Hello everyone,

We then suspected the sway bar end links to be the issue so we ordered those made by LEMFORDER. after installation the steering felt really nice and tighter than before but the noise was still present and very noticable.

Then we suspected a loose bolt from the previous jobs so we went checking every nut and bolt we can lay eyes on from underneath the car with an impact gun trying to find one that is loose but every one seemed to be tight. After that I test drove the car but still the noise is present.


Anyone has any experience of something similar to this and can help out? Thanks alot in advance!
i had a clunking noise at my front right when i replaced front struts/springs/sway bar links on my f10 528i RWD. It would disappear and then appear again.
the issue was with a nut getting loose on sway bar link on right side.
somehow it was getting loose and the only way to stop it was to install a second nut on top of it.
also i suggest to use wrench rather than impact gun to make sure that everything is tight and torqued according to the specs

make sure when you tighten sway bar links that your car is in "road height condition". i lowered it to the ground and crawled underneath to tighten sway bar links. (alternatively you can try to jack the wheels up but it might not give full road condition as cars weight will still be on jack stands.

my 2nd guess would be wheel dust shields sometimes they are getting bent/become rusty and touch suspension parts when turning. perhaps worth checking as well
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      06-07-2023, 09:05 AM   #5
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Could be control arm bushings or sway bar end link binding, make sure the shop tightened them under load only.
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      06-21-2023, 11:53 PM   #6
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Update:

The shop removed the steering rack and subframe from the car and reinstalled them back to make sure all bolts and nuts are torqued. they said they found one bolt that was not fully tighten and that was it. Also they removed the steering boot and have tighten the inner tie rods. The noise when turning the wheel is gone but I still hear the knock while driving on uneven roads very slightly. Its now like 20-30% of how it was before, both in terms of frequency of happening and noise. I am starting to think it might be something loose that is other than suspension. Something like a fog light connector that is dangling or resting on something and rattles or something like that.
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      08-21-2023, 02:19 AM   #7
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FINAL UPDATE:

Hopefully this helps someone who is struggling with this noise. The noise source was the structural bars that are in front of the radiator behind the kidney grills. The 2 bars meet at the top under the hood by one bolt (can be seen as soon as you open the hood in the middle). That bolt was loose and seems like the hole for it was a little bigger than it should (not sure how that happened). The shop tapped the threads of the hole and installed a larger bolt and noise is gone for quite a while now.
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      08-21-2023, 11:22 AM   #8
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Good find, and a bit lucky i guess.
Glad it got fixed :-)
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