Okay, I have a clunk from left rear suspension, I have removed strut assembly from car except for the transverse link , and removed spring. The strut cartridge can be moved slightly side to side by hand, which makes a small thunking sound, cannot move it up and down by hand, could this be the problem? The gland nut has a few threads showing. The nut is round with 2 notches cut in the top, I assume there is a special wrench to tighten this,anyone know what its called and where to acquire one? Any thoughts on if a slight side to side movement could cause the problem?

Thanks for any advice!

Yes that could cause a thunk, try putting a washer or two down the strut tube. As for tightening just use a big pair of channel locking pliers.

Thanks for the reply, I didn't want to mangle the nut, how much force should be required to move the nut?

Those can get pretty rusty but I never had a problem with the channel locks.

Okay I got the insert out, it's a yellow bilstein. I can wiggle the shaft slightly while just holding it with both hands, does this indicate abnormal wear? Cannot move the strut up and down by hand.

The insert is basically an internal shock absorber. You should be able to press the shaft down in to the body like you would a normal shock absorber. Even the gas-charged ones only have low gas pressure and can still be worked up and down, the gas pressure will slowly push the shaft back out of the body after pressing in. I don't think it should move side to side at all.

If might help if you defined "slightly". 1/16, 1/8, 1/4"?

I'd say about 1/16th"

Reassembled left rear, after reefing down the gland nut with a big pipe wrench, the clunk is gone! between that and the Canucks taking game 4,it's been a great day!

I'm resurrecting this old thread since it's closely related to an issue I'm dealing with. I've got a clunk in the rear passenger side that sounds like suspension. It's not the sort of differential or U-joint clunk you get when accelerating or decelerating. It happens when driving slowly (<30 mph) over bumps. I have reason to suspect the strut/gland nut so I pulled the suspension down and removed the spring. This video shows a lot of horizontal play between the shaft of the strut and the opening in the gland nut. The sound it makes is very similar to the sound I'm hearing when driving except that it gets amplified by the body of the car. There's no vertical play and the nut seems to be tight enough.

Should there be this much play? If not, what should be holding the strut in place laterally? It also occurs to me that the spring might hold everything in place when it's installed, but the sound is so like the one I'm trying to track down that I'm suspicious.

The nuts are designed to center the shock body before clamping the shock body in to the strut tube, for replacement shocks. On the original setup the gland nut has a seal that centers the shaft and contains the oil. The gland nut is actually a functional part of the strut. On the replacement shocks, the "gland nut" is not actually a gland nut. It's just a nut used to hold a shock absorber. It does no glanding.

Do you have replacement shocks or the original parts?

To add to Zed's response. No there should not be that much play. Some strut cartridges that have a smaller diameter require a different gland nut to hold the cartridge centered properly...

@Patcon Didn’t you have that same problem “Lilly”?