Clunking / Knocking Noise From Rear
 

Hello everyone. Over the past few months I've had a deep clunking noise coming from the rear of my vehicle when I go over bumps. It is only apparent at low speeds (less than 20 miles per hour). It sounds like old loose/shot struts, but not as loud. At first it was barely noticeable but it has progressively gotten worse.

Car has 80k miles, all stock back there minus a TRD exhaust.

I have tried to brake while going over bumps, both big and small, with light pressure and hard pressure and the noise is still there.

I have put new bolts in where the plastic/rubber pieces sit (that the hatch sits on) so that there is absolutely no gap between the hatch and where it rests when it is closed.

I replaced the hatch struts this winter and they seem fine- no play or rattle.

Today I tore our my interior and tightened the main strut bolts in the middle of the mount (under the plastic caps) and it did nothing.

I've also completely taken the spare tire out.

I've thrown the exhaust a million different ways and cant get the sound to replicate.

I've gotten to sit in my trunk for about a mile and listen and it sounds like its coming from the center of the vehicle between the struts.

Thus I jacked the car up and pushed and pulled on the tie rods and sway bar as well as the sway bar bushings. Everything is solid and I can't even tighten the bolts if I wanted to- they're all rusted on pretty well.

I'm going crazy trying to figure out what could be causing this issue and have researched it for 2 months now.

Can anyone PLEASE shed some light.

it sounds like a blown strut but you just need to figure out which one. you can just simply open up your trunk and push up and down on the car and push down one corner at a time to see the rebound.

if it is blown struts, i would just replace all four.

I had the same noise, and replaced the sway bar bushings, $20 from autozone and no more noise.

You can test the struts to see if they are blown, by pushing on the back of the car and seeing if it is bouncy or not, I doubt it is this. The sway bar bushings are a common issue with these cars.

Slowcelica I wish I saw your post a week ago. I didn't see any more replies after the first few days so I didn't bother looking at this thread until now to post what the issue was because I fixed it. It was indeed the sway bar bushings. The sway bar didn't rattle if you yanked on it, but when I hit it with the palm of my hand I finally heard that God forsaken clunk. So glad it's fixed now.

Happy to help, yea if you try to wiggle it, you won't hear it because that isn't what is happening when you hear the noise, its usually a bump or something that causes it. I'm slowing trying to track down my noises in my car, I have the awful sunroof creak/pop that I can't seem to figure out.

Glad I could help.

Is it a noise when you're opening and closing it? Grab some dry grease and oil up all the moving parts including the rails that the rollers slide on. Then unplug your battery for 10 minutes to reset the ecu. When you turn it on press the button to open the sunroof. Keep pressing it for 5-10 seconds after its completely open. That process has solved any issues I had with my sunroof.

No afraid not, it's not that easy. It only happens when I go over bumps, it's worse when it's cold out.