ICQ>

Thanks to all for the responses. Bob; I discovered the source of the clunking by first feeling around the strut tube, upper mounts, lower ball joints, springs and suspension bushings while someone had the wheel turned sharply and was slowly driving the car back and then forth. By doing this, I could feel the vibration and where it seemed to be the most strong, but was still having trouble isolating it. Next, I listened with a stethoscope (Sears $14.00) to all of the same places I was feeling by hand while the driver was moving the car, and the clunk seemed to resonate from the strut tube or spring. If it was the upper strut mount bearings, they would make an audible grinding noise and vibration through the stethoscope when turning the steering lock to lock. I removed the lower ball joints and inspected- they were fine, I checked wheel bearing play and tightened them, then through process of elimination and because the clunk progressively got louder, I realised that the clunk was coming from within the strut tube. Since the struts (Boge Turbo-Gas) are new, and the sound started shortly after installation, chances of the struts being bad were slim- so it must be the sound of them clunking around in the bottom of the tube.

Steve;

I

will definitely try tightening the top nuts before removing the struts, but what concerns me now is that as Meb mentioned, he tried the Volvo spacer in the bottom of his Boge Turbo-Gas struts and he could not eliminate the clunking. I got the struts from IPD, and they ensured me that these were the correct ones for the car. I guess all I can do if it comes to needing a spacer is to try the one from the dealer! -Craig