i have a 03 ion 2. over the past few months it has developed a loud
knock from the front end whenever the sway is stressed and i cant find
what it is for the life of me. when i pull into my driveway at an
angle, little ridge, it clunks. when i go over a speed bump, with one
side of the car or at an angle, it clucks, however if i go over it
straight with both tires then it's quiet.



any ideas to what it might be? nothing is visibly broken that i can tell.

 

three possibilities I can think of.





ONE, lower control arm rear bushing where it bolts to the frame. They have a bad habbit of sliding out of there collar and resting on the frame causin a good dull clunk over bumps, usually one side but I'v replaces both a few times. Compare side to side and one will sit way lower than the other. It's the bad one.





Two, Ion sway bar links are bad for binding up and causin a clunk. If you grab them they should move side to side nice and smooth but if its bad it will be notchy and bind.





Three, Ion's had a bulletin about the brackets that hold the sway bar to the car are too big causing the bushing to move up and down causing a clunk from the sway bar. They are kinda a pain to get atbut the fix is to remove them and bend the(slot-in) sideof the bracket to squeeze the bushings tighter.





Hope that helps good luck, keep me posted