Hi guys,

I am chasing a rear clunk noise which happens when going over the road cracks and potholes. Pushing the rear of the car with hands in an up/down motion doesn't reproduce it.

I replaced all the bushings in the rear 10 years ago. I probably put about 1000 miles on the car.

First, I thought the noise was due to my read speaker deck, I removed it. Another thought was the deck lid, there is small play in the deck struts due to the loose bushing/pin attaching the struts to the mounting location.

I jacked up the car, removed the strut assemblies and checked the rear strut insulators. They are solidly attached, no play. However, I saw a hairline crack on the LH side.

I checked all the rear sway bar bolts, nuts, plus the R200 hardware, rear half-shafts bolts/nuts, fuel tank/pump, mustache bar hardware. 10 years ago I installed an aftermarket RT mount, there is a 1/8 in gap between the R200 and the RT poly bushing when the car is rested on the jack stands.

What are your thoughts? I went through a lot of posts about the rear end clunking (hundreds of hits lol), and I think I checked all of them on my car with the exception of that hairline crack in the insulator.

I am planning to order a pair of strut insulators to begin with (240z ones with an adapter, unless someone has a pair of later 280z ones in a good condition?).

Thanks!

I doubt that hairline crack is the source of your problem, That crack probably doesn't go very deep. Hopefully it's just a surface feature.

So, the first thing I would check are the nuts on the top of the strut insert (down in the recess in the top center of the strut insulators). If one of them has worked their way loose (or were never tight to begin with), you would get a noise like what you describe. And you can't just "check for play" with the strut assembly off the car. That spring will extend to take up any available play. There would only be play with a load on the strut that has partially compressed the strut insert.

So was this noise always there, or is it something that has developed over time?