Hey Team,

After obliterating my Lower control arm inner bushing on a pothole, I decided to replace them with the whiteline ones that the folk on here have recommended. The clunk that was present is massively reduced, but there is still a definite clunk coming fron the left side when it is turning right and while braking. Can't feel it while reversing.

Got a shop to install the new bushings since my insurance doesn't cover me replacing things myself unless it's with OEM products. So they installed the Whitelines and did a wheel alignment for me - but i'm still getting an annoying little clunk.

Here's a couple of videos to demonstrate the problem (sorry for vertical video).
One thing I also wanted to confirm was whether the shop did the alignment to the proper specifications. The values I got from the nicoclub website (found on page 21 here http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/350Z/cou...adster/FSU.pdf) are different from the values that they aligned it to at the shop - see attached photo. But I'm not sure if the new bushings should alter those recommended alignment specs.

As per the video, I think my problem might be the inner or outer tie rod ends, or the strut mount - but thought I'd get some advice before taking it back to the shop. Thanks

 

Your alignment is fine, a little uneven but fine.

Just need to check your tie rods, ball joints, wheel bearings, loose bolts, etc, its one of those things.

 

Thanks for the reply. From the sound I was getting in the video I linked, it sounded like tie rod inners were the cause. Just to make sure, I bought myself a torque wrench and will tediously make sure everything is screwed down right before I take it into a shop and pay 4 hours of labour for them to try and diagnose it. Will post back here once it's done.

 

Was the tail-end of the car wiggly at all once you noticed the bushing was broken? Did it drive straight/true line? or mushy?

 

Got progressively worse going in a straight line. At first I could only notice it when turning right, but it got bad enough that it was clunking pretty had just going straight forward. Tail kicked out a bit too easy when cornering at high speed, but you feel the instability in the front end before it happens.

 

Mine were not installed properly the first time, and I still had noise. I then had them corrected and had a bit of noise until they settled. Now, I am clunk free.

 

Can I ask what went wrong with the initial install? You replace with the whiteline ones?