I forgive the wall of text, and truly hope you read it as I'm fairly confident to get a "big picture" of what's been happening it's all related-ish. I've included any and all "symptoms" as to give a potential "oh, this sounds exactly like X part is bad or going bad", you know?

At this point, I haven't been able to find anything that's loose or has movement. Everything in the actual wheel-well seems all solid, no movement to write home about, etc. I can't seem to reproduce the problem with it just sitting, and that's just bouncing it up/down (returns to level almost instantly), pushing it side-to-side, etc. I haven't had time to get a solid look at the mounts/bushings in the R&P like Eric describes but the clunk really does sound like something is just "loose" and banging around freely when hitting bumps/front-end "flexing".

I've taken this car (05 Neon) to 3 different mechanics with none of them supposedly able to find (mind you, none of them have charged me any sort of diagnostic fees so they might simply be looking for the obvious without being guaranteed money) what's causing my clunks. I even told them I'd pay an hour labor for them to really take a look at it but none of them seem to want to charge me? lol

So that's three mechanics, none of which could actually find anything that would cause clunks like I'm having, which is simply something "loose" banging around on bumps or something "bottoming out" when hitting bumps. Seems to come from the side the bump is actually hit on. Can feel the "clunk" through the steering wheel as well as the pedals.

Honestly though, not to re-hash another thread of mine but here's a current running tally of what's been happening and what's been fixed.

Symptoms:

Growl above 35mph when wheel is straight and turned right. - SOLVED PARTIALLY (more on this below)
Clunks when hitting SOME bumps AND feeling it in the pedals/steering wheel, all at varying speeds and sometimes not at all.

What's been replaced:
Upper, Lower, Driver-side/Tranny motor mounts - I did NOT replace the "middle" mount so the clunks (although they come from BOTH sides on the front-end depending on the bump hit, as well as feeling it in the pedals/steering wheel) may or may not be related to this at all.

Driver/Passenger bearings (reading this is needed for full context) - First place I ever went to said driver bearing, which I assumed with the above symptoms. Needless to say they replaced the driver bearing and nothing changed. I took it back since I needed the car for the week so the next week I took it back for them to do the passenger side (for free) and all growling is gone.

The real interesting part about the bearings - BOTH bearings were replaced ~1 week ago and the second shop I took it to (literally for the front-end clunks) called me up and said "both rear control arm bushings are bad (which I thought as well) and your passenger bearing is bad". Now, this second location is a different "branch" of this family owned service center and had literally zero knowledge of any prior work performed at the first branch. Needless to say I just told them to replace the entire control arm, with the bushing and new ball joint already pressed in. So I have 2 new control arms, ca bushings and ball joints. They told me that although there's literally zero complaints of growls or anything like that it was "bad" since the hub was loose? Either way, taking it in tomorrow to have them replace that (free this time as well lol, so I'd find it hard to believe this place is going to eat the cost of these parts AND labor unless these things are really bad - and yes, they do have the bearing as I seen the one they ordered for it so it's not a "scam" going on or anything) and balance/rotate/alignment.

BOTH WHOLE Control Arm Assemblies (with bushings and ball joints already pressed in) - Both rear control arms bushings were bad and yes I know they were. To give some further context to this the passenger side rear control arm bushing was replaced exactly 1 year ago. Now, something to add to the control arm aspect is that yes, I did need an alignment before they did it but when I got the car back (pisses me off that they apparently don't test drive vehicles after replacing parts......) the alignment was worse than before the control arms (and they swear up and down that control arms won't affect the alignment to the extend I'm talking) and I mean the steering is loose as hell, oddly when hitting bumps with the left wheel doesn't cause any noticeable "jerk" when hitting bumps but the passenger side is a whole different story. Also, (my friends all call me a hypochondriac at this point, but let's all be real we all know when something just isn't "right" with out cars...)

Now, this is going to sound funny with the hypochondriac statement above, but I SWEAR since getting the vehicle back after replacing the control arms, depending on just how much of a "dip" either wheel "goes in", it seems like when it's coming back "out" of the dip it "spins" real quick before gaining traction again is the best way I could describe it. Think "spins" in terms of what it "feels like" when doing a burn-out. The same "feeling" of a "spin" seemed to happen a few times when hitting 50mph and shifting from one gear to another. Until the alignment is done and this new passenger bearing is put in, I'm not going to worry too much about this yet. LOL

So, that's 2 locations that actually replaced parts. Both of which I knew the parts were bad, so no I know it's not "scam mechanics" or anything like that. The 3rd location (not related to the above "branches" was purely with "hey I have some clunks, go for a test drive so you can hear them", which they did. They didn't charge me a dime, so I'm really unsure if they spent any real amount of time digging for the cause but needless to say called me up to say "I looked at everything and can't find anything that sticks out. So outside of throwing parts at it, I really have nothing to tell you."

So that's three mechanics, none of which could actually find anything that would cause clunks like I'm having, which is simply something "loose" banging around on bumps or something "bottoming out" when hitting bumps. Seems to come from the side the bump is actually hit on. Can feel the "clunk" through the steering wheel as well as the pedals.

I keep telling myself, as much as it definitely clunks, and the mechanic who actually took me for a test drive felt and heard the clunk saying "I can't find anything, as much as I know it obviously clunks" that I'm just going to get this passenger bearing replaced (again) and get an alignment and drive it till it breaks. No-one wants their car to break and I definitely don't need it breaking when doing highway speeds with the kids in the car either though. :P

Thanks again!

 

Ball joints, cv half shafts, sway bar bracket bushings, struts, many just bolts that are not tight. You would be surprised how many mechanics are in a hurry to make a quick buck and forget to torque down bolts. Seen it many times. Even stealer ships.

 

Well, the clunks started about 2 months ago, so at this point it's either bolts (going with your above reply) that simply deterorated over time since the last time it was in a shop was a year ago (exactly on this day heh) for a tie-rod end.

ball joints, already covered by the whole control arm assemblies so unless the new ball joints are bad out of box, and make the EXACT same noise as previous, can't be them.

I was thinking possibly axle but with mucking about with replacing BOTH bearings once, and now tomm will be 2 weeks since both were replaced and they want to replace the passenger side again (supposedly has some slight movement in it), I'd be highly surprised that 3 separate incidences of having to "play" with the axle that'd go unseen?

swar bay all around seems solid (links as well) no worn rubber or anything like that either.

Struts, another suspect I had but without being able to reproduce it when not driving, is there any "surefire" way I could test it while on stands? I mean I've shaken the hell out of almost everything inside the wheel-well with nothing seeming loose or having movement? No leading from the strut or anything either...

One quick addition, when taking it for that test drive with the last mechanic, we stopped on a pretty steep grade hill and he "floored it" almost as how you would floor it from a steep incline to get that initital momentum and it made what I'll say is the clunk, but it was loud/harder than normal. He was like "is that it?" and I was just like "well I definitely never heard it sound like that before, but I would have to say that's going to be the actual part".

My whole thing is that while myself, a personal friend who's my normal mechanic (ASE certified, works on the county public transit system), and three separate mechanics can't seem to find any cause is there anything that would stand out in terms of causing it to be felt through the pedals, steering wheel AND come from either side of the vehicle depending on which tire hits? As much as I want to say the struts seem fine, is there anyway to measure (find heh) the "normal" distance between a wheel and fender? lol

 

Sounds like the one thing being overlooked is the strut mounts. A buddy of mine just had a strut come up through the strut tower on his Dodge Caravan. He had been complaining about a clunking sound for a while before that happened and it finally gave out.

 

Hey Richard, my whole argument with the wife in terms of her bitching no-one seems to be able to find anything wrong is simply because "nothing obvious" must be wrong, without them charging any labor to dig into it, they want all the obvious stuff. What I mean by that though, with strut jobs cost a good chunk of money, I would assume since that's all visible it would be easy enough for them to spot?

I will admit, I haven't looked at them in terms of the top mount portion but I'm going to go there next I suppose. Outside of the mount I'm pretty confident in saying nothing else with the assembly visibly looks bad, no leaks, etc.

 

This **** is seriously getting annoying now and I think I found a "branch" (albeit locally owned) service center I will make it my life mission to boycott and ensure they receive nothing but negative reviews.

So, as I was mentioning 2 weeks ago a branch replaced both driver and passenger bearing. All growling noise was gone. They couldn't figure out (two times) what could have been making the clunking noises, so I went to the other branch and they said "your passenger bearing is bad, and we can't find the clunking".

I just get back today from them replacing the bearing (free, but still) and getting an alignment done and they were all like "oh, you have some major camber problems, in both the front and back" (both seem to be pass side according to this printout) and wanted me to pay something like $325 for literally 4 bolts so they could adjust the camber? According to the printout the pass front was -0.6 (driver was 0.4) and pass rear was -1.2 (driver was 0.2) so I said screw that, just do the alignment.

Needless to say the "after" printout shows pass front being -0.4 (driver 0.3) and pass rear being -1.1 (drive 0.1) so I'm curious if I've never had camber problems before or somehow within a year (exactly to this date is when I had an alignment last) camber became an issue AND you need special bolts (literally) to fix it?...........

I ask the question of "Do you think it's any particular coincidence that I've went through a passenger control arm bushing last year, another one this year (same side), 2 passenger side bearings, within 2 weeks of each other (although there was no audible or feelable (it's a word!) problems in the 2 week timespan of when it was originally installed"? and get "probably not". I know cars are finicky little bastards but to a layman, using common sense it would at least seem to warrant a "you know, that is some crazy coincidences in the least".

 

The bushings in the controller arms should last at least 50k miles. I have owned over 4 neons in my life and none of them was smooth on a bad road. But my old ladies focus. Same road, was smooth.

I went to get an alignment once and they told me one of my inner toe rods was bad and my k member was moved over almost a half an inch. Said Ought need a new one. I made them refund my 65 dollars. And I messed with my outer tie rods and 2 front strut cam bolts that I bought. Now my alignments are almost dead on.

Shops just want your money bro. First thing I would do is get out my torque wrench and torque every suspension bolt to spec. See if one is off. Mine used to knock over bumps and it was the front sway bar braket bushings. On a neon them bolts will break off so drill and tap. Or cut and add nuts and reeled the k frame u cut.

 

I hear ya Frank. That's what mechanics don't keep in mind (or maybe they do but they simply look at "how do I fix this symptom") that people know when their car starts acting differently. You know?

That's the other thing, I understand they pretty much double the price of AM parts even if they are the exact same parts but $325 for what I THINK(?) is 4 bolts, 1 for each wheel is insane? They can't even come up with some sort of crazy labor involved since if it's the bolts I'm thinking it's literally taking the top bolt off and replacing it, 30 minutes tops for all 3 wheels to install them?

I might just put them on for the next time I need an alignment they can't say "you need a camber kit". :P