HELP! Clunking in back rear

[zilfin]

Honda Prelude SIR '97

I have a clunking noise coming from my back rear, and its only when I go over a bump but doesn’t make a noise if I crawl over the lump or if I jump up and down on the boot.

I've taken it to two mechanic's and they say that everything is fine.

Its not the spare tire or the jack.

Anyone have a similar thing??

[mick]

yeah i do
its my exhaust hitting against my lower sway bar tho

[hondapowergirl]

dead bodies in the boot??


haha well if its been checked out then it shouldnt be anything structual, maybe its like something loose inside or i dunno.. have a look round, under carpets and stuff.

[Pdu-NZ]

It's is commonly known as Shock Knock. Prelude's are prone to this (ie common). It's caused by the bushes at the top of the shocks wearing and hitting the top and side of the rear strut tower.


1. Remove the backseat's seatback. Fold the backseat down. At the bottom corners, take off 2 clips which attached the carpet to the seatback. Under that, you see the bolts that attaches the backseat to the hinge. Remove both bolts, and take out the seatback off the car.

2. Remove the backseat's buttom cushion. Release the seat from the button. There are 2 T-shaped release handles that you can pull. One at each side. Pull the cushion towards you and take out the cushion out of the car.

3. Now, we see the bar that you are going to remove. There are totally 10 bolts that hold the bar in place. Take all 10 bolts off using 10mm socket. Please realize that 2 bolts are different from the rest. Remember where these bolts came off from! At the back of the bar, there is a wire harness which attaches to the bar. Release the clips.

4. Now, you have a clean access to the bar. There are 10 bolts, so there are 10 contact points or more. Apply whatever you want to use to the area around the holes. I use 3M foam tape. I cut it into small pieces and just stick them to whatever I think there is contact area. Do that until you feel satified.

5. After you are done applying the foam tape or whatever. Install the bar and install everything that you took off during the procedure. Test drive and hope the noise is gone.

[zilfin]

Wow, thanks Pdu-NZ, thats some great advise.

I'll start on it this weekend and let you know how i get on.

Thanks again.

[zilfin]

Well,

I tried it on the weekend, brilliant instructions.

I placed double sided industrial tape around two sides of each of the screw holes, and put the bar back on, although managed to break the last bolt. So I’ll have to get that replaced, but at the moment. The sound still exists... I'll see if it makes any difference when I replace the last bolt, but its not looking promising...

Any other suggestions?

[Simon K]

Worn suspension/anti roll bar bushes?
My GSR did the same thing(although it's a bit older)and some of the bushes turned out to be a bit tired. If your car has done close to 100k, the same issues may apply.

[lexstar]

ur car tools securly fixed?

i had mine in the spare tyre plce, took them out and now no rattle!

[zilfin]

Worn suspension/anti roll bar bushes?
My GSR did the same thing(although it's a bit older)and some of the bushes turned out to be a bit tired. If your car has done close to 100k, the same issues may apply.

Would this have been picked up by the two mechanic's and the 10k service?

[SiRaccord]

most accords that have been lowered have the same problem ,mine did and it had all new bushs etc

[Simon K]

Originally Posted by zilfin

Would this have been picked up by the two mechanic's and the 10k service?

That depends on how attentive the mechanics were of course

[Pnut]

I had a similar sort of sound in my EF7 rattling and banging on one of the rears until i changed the rear trailing arm pivot bushes, the side that was making the noise was busted and moved along the axis of the bush as well as about it as you jacked the car up.

Totally different car of course, but just a thought along the bush theme :wink: