Clunk over small bumps on front left

[lext]

Just a small update. Yesterday I had a co-worker bouncing the car when I was *inside*, and I heard the noise too. So it's probably something to do with the strut/strut mount. I'm ordering replacement for them.
The strange thing is that when I was outside and bouncing it, I hardly hear anything at all. But inside, you can hear it so loudly and clearly. That's the part I didn't suspect. I was expecting to hear the same sound, and it just doesn't happen that way. Must be something to do with how the sound is propagated along side the metal frame of the car?

[Sommerfeldt]

I currently have something very similar, the only difference is that mine is on the passenger side (or maybe the same side, if "left" means left from standing in front of the car looking in).

Cars are either Left Hand Drive (most sane countries) or Right Hand Drive (a few crazy, ex British colonies ), and that's how you describe left or right side of cars. So since you're in the US, the left side is the side with the steering wheel.

OP, also check that your body panels are fastened properly. My left front panel was loose, making exactly the same clunking sound as a lot of the other stuff on the list here.

- S

[BEJinFbk]

I don't think that's what he means.

In terms of describing which side of the car is which
for the purpose of identifying a part or describing a problem,
when you sit in the car facing forward, the left side of the car
is on your left and the right side of the car is on your right.

( Regardless of where the steering wheel is )

[lext]

Yeah I know what the convention is. But just because you know the convention doesn't mean the person you're talking to also have the same convention in mind. In my line of work (I'm an SW engineer) I've learned to always be precise what you both are talking about, because otherwise you can waste a lot of time talking past each other without knowing it. Many a times I've found what you think is "common sense" is anything but to another person

That's why when talking about sides, I've usually used the terms "passenger side" and "driver side" (instead of left/right) to remove the ambiguity. Until today when Sommerfeldt reminded me there are countries when it means different things (and there are quite a few of those countries: http://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/list- ... countries/ . India and Japan too! Who knew?).

Maybe we should take a page from the maritime world and have something like "port side" and "starboard side"?

[Sommerfeldt]

I don't think that's what he means.

In terms of describing which side of the car is which
for the purpose of identifying a part or describing a problem,
when you sit in the car facing forward, the left side of the car
is on your left and the right side of the car is on your right.

( Regardless of where the steering wheel is )

Exactly what I said.

- S

[kaneelschep]

Did this ever get resolved?

I think I have exactly the same. On small bumps and bad streets at slower speeds you hear it like small clunks.
Louder inside the car than outside. It seems to come from both sides.
Also never heard it while standing next to it and pushing the front down.
I recently changed the end links, left arm with balljoint. last year I did seat springs so I know that sound well.
All that remains of what people said is sway bar rubbers and strut bearings.
My struts do not move when I pull the wheel.

My car also has quite indirect steering. Feels very wooly..
The wooly steering and the sound coming from the feet instead of hearing it outside, makes me lean very much towards the sway bar rubbers.

[archermtn]

In my case, it was the front-right (passenger) side. Got progressively worse over a couple weeks. Checked all of the recently-replaced suspension components to no avail. Simple as a loosening bolt on the brake caliper in my case. Easy fix but scary to have missed it. Also was causing the ABS to throw all kinds of warnings - haven't seen any since the 'fix'...