[agracer_1969]

Long story short, after replacing the brakes disks/pads (front), shoes (rear) and front/rear struts and shocks on my 2000 Odyssey, I continued to hear clunking noises at the front of my car.

Google led me here, and I found several threads covering this topic with solutions. So I replaced the sway bar linkages and pins in the brakes and TA-DA...no more noise. Very happy camper.

2-weeks later, the noises were back. I pulled into the garage, crank the wheel and look under the front wheel well and see that the nut holding the lower part of the sway bar link on the drivers side has come loose! Oops...must have not tightened it enough. Then I look on the passenger side and the NUT IT IS GONE! OK, I'm not that careless that I did not tighten both of them.

Fortunately I had the right sized nut in my spares box and used that on the passenger side, along with a little blue lock tight to help hold things in place. (why is there no lock washer on these things?)

Noises gone.

Month later, noises back again and both bolts are lose again!

UGG....need to get lock washers! I tighten them again.

Noises gone

Month later, noises are back but everything is tight.

Anyone have a suggestion on what to do now. It's driving my wife nuts. Maybe remove the brake pins and add more grease? I'm at a loss here
and very frustrated.

Thanks all

 

[2000 TL]

Maybe try some blue loctite? It will help keep the bolts in place.

On a related note, I just changed our 2002 Odys brake pads and have the front end noise. I took a look last night, but nothing seems obviously loose. I'll check it more thoroughly this weekend.

If there are any other solution suggestions, please post. Thanks.

 

[abaloneman]

I think it may be the front control arm bushings causing the noise. I have had the rattling/clunking noises from the undercarriage for years and I think I read somewhere in this forum that the solution is replacing the control arm bushings ... I just haven't had the inclination to take on the project yet.

I don't know why your replacing the sway bar linkage would affect it, but is pretty obvious that if you are having the noise and the sway bar is tight, it is something else. If I find the post re control arm bushings I paste it here.

 

[abaloneman]

I think it may be the front control arm bushings causing the noise. I have had the rattling/clunking noises from the undercarriage for years and I think I read somewhere in this forum that the solution is replacing the control arm bushings ... I just haven't had the inclination to take on the project yet.

I don't know why your replacing the sway bar linkage would affect it, but is pretty obvious that if you are having the noise and the sway bar is tight, it is something else. If I find the post re control arm bushings I paste it here.

Here is the link ... http://www.odyclub.com/forums/24-19...y-suspension-noise-discussion.html#post617212

see also ... HOW TO change the lower control arm bushing - TDIClub Forums this is from a different model, but very similar.

I'm considering changing out the bushings myself to try to eliminate the clunking and rattling over rough road surfaces - annoying.

 

[agracer_1969]

Thanks for the reply. I'll take a look at those this weekend and see what I can find. No doubt the car has a lot of miles (160k) but it seems odd that the work I did a few months back would silence everything, then suddenly it's making noise again.

I don't wonder if the sway bar linkages was some how damaged when the nuts came loose/fell off. But then, you'd think if that were the case it would not have gone quite after the 1st and 2nd tightening I did.

Frustrating as heck!

 

[agracer_1969]

Got a chance to jack up the front end and pull the wheels off the car. The drivers side lower sway bar linkage nut was in fact loose again! I had to take the top nut off to realize what had happened but as soon as I did, I could shake it around in the lower mount.

Summary, I put a lock washer on it and it's fixed; long version below.

So I got a lock washer at the hardware store and put that on the drivers side.

The original OEM sway bars had nut fittings on them that you could hold with a wrench while you lossened the nut off the linkage. The replacement set (from Honda btw) had no such nut and somehow it just did not click with me the first time I put everything together that there is a hex end on the screwed fittings of the linkage (I used an impact gun to put the top ones on - which explains why they did not come lose) but you can't do that with the lower set (no room).

So I really did not get everything on the lower end tight enough to begin with, or the 2nd time. The 3rd time however I did figure everything out!

When I replaced the lost nut from the passenger side, I replaced it with a nylock nut I had in my spares box. Since I've now got it right (using the hex wrench to hold the threaded fitting) it's never come lose again. But the drivers side is still the Honda flared nut with no locking mechanism and continues to cause issues. Obviously blue lock-tite is not enough to hold everything.

It now has the lock washer on it, but really it's not the correct size as it is not wide enough for the flared nut and now the contact area of the nut is not across the large surface area of the mounting flange on the strut tower. The lock washer is for a standard size nut, not a flared nut like on the van. But hopefully it will hold this time. I probably should have held the threaded end with the hex head and beat on my box end wrench with my 4lb mallet but I did not think of that until just now!

Unfortunetly the hardware store did not have a fine thread M12 Nylock nut or it would be on the car right now. I suppose I should go find one since it seems determined to haunt me until I put one on!

 

[kbh]

Maybe try some blue loctite? It will help keep the bolts in place.

On a related note, I just changed our 2002 Odys brake pads and have the front end noise. I took a look last night, but nothing seems obviously loose. I'll check it more thoroughly this weekend.

If there are any other solution suggestions, please post. Thanks.

Are you sure you installed the thin metal shims into the caliper where the tabs on the brake pads clip in? If they are missing, the pads will rattle over bumps but the noise will magically disappear when you apply the brakes. I did this when I recently serviced my brakes but since I also did suspension work at the same time, it took me a while to figure it out. Having the sound go away when I hit the brakes was the 'light bulb' moment.