1997 Prelude. Noise, a thump comes the rear of the car when going over a road rut. Why?

staley1

This car is in excellent condition. My mechanic cannot find the reason for the noise in the rear as the car travels over a bomp or rut in the road. What could it be?

kyfdx

staley1 said:

This car is in excellent condition. My mechanic cannot find the reason for the noise in the rear as the car travels over a bomp or rut in the road. What could it be?

I hesitate to offer a diagnosis, if your mechanic can't find it, but the most common reason is a blown strut/shock or a loose suspension mount.

That said, any mechanic should be able to discover that kind of problem

thecardoc3

Clunks, or bangs when going over bumps can sometimes be difficult to find because the suspension is absorbing thousands of pounds or force and there is no way to reproduce that in the shop by hand. Even very tiny movement of a sway bar in its bushings (1/64" - .015") can sound like someone hitting the car with a hammer on the inside but cannot always be reliably felt by hand while the car is on a hoist. A tool like Chassis Ear http://www.amazon.com/STEELMAN-97202-Wireless-ChassisEAR-Diagnostic/dp/B00123J79O can really help isolate the source of such sounds.

staley1

Have other 97 Prelude owners had this problem and what was it?

thecardoc3

There is no "it". There are a number of potential sources and each car that presents with this similar issue needs to be analyzed on its own condition.

isellhondas

Take it to a dealer or a shop that specializes in suspension work. Those guys have probably dealt with this before on Preludes and know what areas to look at.

All we can do here is guess.

staley1

All helpful. I was hoping this was a symptom others with Preludes have experienced and that it was common.

thecardoc3

It is common to get symptoms as you described on this and many other models, its just that each car has to be diagnosed for what is wrong this time. The list of things that it "could be" would include but not be limited to;
Sway bar bushings, sway bar links, strut mounts, struts, spring mounts, ball joints, bumper cover, exhaust, something bouncing around in the trunk area. For the shop the information that you provide about the noise is all about setting the conditions for the tech to be able to get the noise to occur and then he/she can employ a number of techniques to confirm the source of the sound. There are times that it takes more than one technician in order to prove if the sound is traveling directly to the driver, if it is a transmitted sound, or even if it is an echo off of the road or something that you are driving past.