Noise coming from under vehicle when running over bumps at low speed -'06 Element

ranwill

The dealership was unable to find the noise that is coming from under my element that sounds like something loose and hitting when I run over some bumps in the road but not all. Seems to happen more when there are multiple bumps in a row.

thecardoc3

Nothing is certain with noises, especially if a tech hasn't heard it first to get a sense of direction. Some of the tougher things to figure out happen to be the bushings that hold the sway bar to the body. Pushing and pulling on the bar with your hands doesn't generate anywhere near the forces that hitting bumps do so a bar that doesn't "feel" like it is loose could make a knock that sounds like a wheel is loose and ready to fall off.

Has a tech ridden in the car with you and experienced the noise? If you have two or three people in the car all listening to the noise and pointing in the direction that they think it is coming from, can you describe exactly where everyone would be pointing? (An example would be below your feet, or maybe a line drawn through the dash just below the radio etc.) Once armed with a specific direction, then the tech needs to figure out if that is the actual source direction or if it is a transmitted sound. Tools like Chassis Ear can really help with these kinds of problems. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLjHsa9xEP0