Just lowered car, now experiencing clunking noises
 

So I finally got a pair of Tein H-techs for my IS300 and had them installed (as well as a set of stock shocks) at A&J racing. Car looks and rides great as it should from the factory, but unfortunately whenever I turn at low speeds I hear a loud "clunk" coming from the front part of the vehicle. The sound also happens when I run over bumps or potholes, and I can feel the rattle on my throttle slightly when it happens. I went back to AJR and they took out and put back in the parts and the sound is still there. The mechanic suggests it could be a number of things and suggested I try replacing the ball joints first (and if that doesn't work, try the end links and sway bars), but I don't want to go through a goose hunt only to spend thousands before diagnosing the real problem.

Anyone gone through these symptoms before? Does it have anything to do with the lowering or did it just happen to fail when I did the work? I'm sitting on 175k kma. I still have to change my tires, change the brakes and do an alignment very soon as they're all near the end of life, but I'm not confident any of those would make the problem go away.

Is your exhaust hitting your frame somewhere now? Maybe where it goes over in the rear?

Berz out.

It could very well be the springs trying to settle in.

^^ Take it out for a hard/spirited drive and see if that is it. Come out tonight for the cruise. I might be going :)

I didn't experience any strange noises after dropping my IS300, luckily. I've got more km on my car as well.
Check rubber bushings and have those greased while you're at it. Endlinks and ball joints. Check for play and make sure both sides act the same. You've probably just upset one of your suspension components as a result of lowering. Not an uncommon thing to happen.

^ You're talking about the weekly night cruises? Damn too short notice but I'll keep these in mind. Is there still a local IS300 group going around? Now that our cars are getting old it would be nice to know a few other owners.

I'll take it to AJR and present to them all the possible options I would like them to check for while getting my alignment done.

As for springs settling in, I realllly hope so but don't feel I am so lucky.

Yes, the weekly cruises.
There was a local group back in the day. The only other forum members I know of that have an is300 are, shenmecar, crew08, 604_EJ1, and myself. Won't find many on other forums either. Clublexus is mostly local guys with 2nd gen IS'. And a lot more guys from the eastern provinces on my.is.

top hats? i find that usually the top hat bushing goes after swapping springs or at least any of the many bushings go.

lowering spring are shorter than stock, so when they are installed, there is less compression on the top hat. maybe something loosened because it had to be taken out and put back in.

"try replacing the balljoints first" ....nice

The balljoints are either in need of replacement or not. Same with the endlinks.

you say youre on stock shocks? what if theyre bottoming out and do you have stock struts ?

H-tech springs are a really mild drop, under an inch all around, and are only slightly stiffer than stock. I doubt hes bottoming out or have blown them.

You do mention swapping both the springs and shocks over on my.is. Did you get a new set of oem struts?

Didn't know IS300 owners are so rare here, I've had it for almost 6 years now and never really thought about it. Do you guys just meet up at the cruises?

The drop is the same as the Eibach Pro-kit which many people install with stock shocks so I doubt it is an issue. I only replaced the shocks as they were leaking but I don't believe the struts were changed however.

Adding that to my list of things to check for. Thanks!


I think they're just thinking of possible things that could make the clunk go away. Didn't look like they absolutely need to be replaced immediately but they could be responsible for the noise?

Sure, throw enough new parts at it and eventually you'll find the right one.

Point is, they should find the right part to replace.

So, $700 later I have fixed the problem. I replaced the ball joints, tie rods and sway bar end links and it runs like a charm with no sounds. Am I happy? Not necessarily.. that is a lot of money that I could have probably saved if I did not lower the car, since the lowered vehicle probably aggravated all these parts. I can't believe I just spent $1400 to drop the car an inch ($700 was the cost of springs, shocks, labor and alignment). On the other hand, since they were all in relatively poor condition I probably would have had to deal with it at some point.

Thanks for all the suggestions in this thread.

faulty ball joints and tie rod ends are very easy to troubleshoot they are never a maybe or possibly part of a problem. they either or either not part of a problem.

Expensive fix, lol. Did you find out which part it was after you inspected the old ones? And did you buy OEM or from Figs Engineering?

Nope, they basically said replace all of them as they all looked a bit worn out. I couldn't be sure which ONE part, or if multiple ones caused it, but after looking at them they did manage to convince me that I may as well replace all of them, as I may experience the clunks again in the near future. I went with OEM... are parts from Figs cheaper/better?

lower ball joints tend on the lexus tend to create a creaking sound, clicking, squeaking noise when turning the steering wheel at low or dead still speeds.

clunking noise is usually associated with either the top hat, lower control arm bushing, or sway bar end links/sway bar bushings.

a clicking noise, usually the spring not sitting right sandwiched on the strut. lowering springs are shorter, so preload is less.