Car has recently developed a popping sound. Think it's coming from around the driver's side front wheel. I can hear it when going over rough road, driveway or actual street. Also when entering a right hand curve, I hear a single pop.

Ball joint is good and tight as is the sway bar end links. What else could it be? The sound has gotten a little worse over the 500-1000 miles.

 

So my mechanic checked everything around the wheel and found nothing loose. He did notice a bit of play in the brake pads. I have Stoptech SP pads. When I installed them, I didn't use the clip that was one the previous pads as it made a horrible squealing noise when driving. Was I supposed to reuse those clips?

Not sure if that could be the problem or not though, my gut says that would make a different sound than what I am hearing. Also, the sound might better be described as a clunk rather than a pop.

Any help?

 

I suggest checking around all the wheels rather than just one. Plenty of times i have driven a car thinking the clunk was coming from the front only to find issues in the rear. Sounds can be very deceiving. The bushings on the swaybar could be loose or on the swaybar links. ball joint could cause a clunk. strut tops can cause a clunk outer tierods may be loose check those as well. Those would be the first things i would check as they are the most common. Any bushing within the suspension system could cause a noise though so check all of them. A rubber hammer is your best friend when diagnosing this issue. You may be able to bounce the car up and down to reproduce the noise you are hearing try bouncing each corner and if you can reproduce the noise you will at least know the general area it is coming from. hope some of this helps. Brake pads dont generally cause popping noises but its possible. If the popping noise happens when braking and when not braking it is not the brakes. However if the popping noise only occurs under one of these instances i would bet on the brakes.

 

So it turned out to be the control arm bushing. Mechanic said they felt tight, but appeared to be dried out. He sprayed them with silicon and the problem went away. Car has 75k on it.

Am I right in guessing that this is just a temporary bandaid?

If so, what's the best bushing to replace the OEM ones with?

Should I consider going ahead and upgrading the control arms? Don't really plan on doing any suspension mods. When my springs wear out, I might consider a minimal drop. Have considered going wider tires on my next set. Would I really benefit from aftermarket control arms?

 

Assuming you're referring to the front a-arm bushings. As far as control arm bushings go, do a little research and find the best bushing set for your needs. Also, if you're waiting for your springs to "wear out", you'll be waiting a long time. Suspension springs don't typically wear out to the point they need to be replaced. As for whether you'd benefit from aftermarket control arms, keep in mind you'll only be replacing the TOP front arms and it's usually the adjustable camber feature that make these so valuable. Unless you're tuning for performance (and know what you're doing), they're of minimal benefit.