My 1973 2.0 sat in my fathers garage for 16 years. With old Koni reds and 140 lb springs, I used to hear a hollow clunking sound from the right rear when driving on mildly bumpy roads. I checked the shock top and bottom. Checked every component under the rear of the car. Checked the battery hold down. I even checked the brackets for the rear trunk lid. Found nothing needing attention. Now I'm beginning to believe it was cold weather affecting the shock in some way. Am I hallucinating?

Maybe the 16 years of rust has fused things together

we have a saying in engineering:
"problems that go away on their, come back on their own..."

i would inspect the forward trailing arm pivots v-e-r-y carefully.
it could be that whataver was happening has progressed to the point that it's no longer making its warning sound. could be that it was an issue with the cold acting on the elastomer insert.

could be you finally fastened down the jack :-)

but nothing good has ever been reported from rear suspension failure, and issues at the suspension console are a primary (but not only) cause of clunking. check it out.

Thanks for the advice. I'll check the pivots again. Perhaps I should upgrade to roller bearings. I'll report back with photos.

rear wheel bearing? they can make a LOT of noise... dunno if it would be called a clunk though...


cars don't fix themselves, if they did, mine would be sick of having a jackstand up it's ass for a year and would have taken care of itself...

I once had an issue with a spring and rear shock that for whatever reason did not seat correctly and would occasionally make an unusual clunking sound. I think the spring was binding on one of the perches and when the conditions were just right, it would relieve the tension by clunking.

I changed rear shocks/springs and it solved the clunking noise issue.

Perhaps your spring and perch did rust together. (In which case the noise will return with use)

I agree that you should check your rear suspension carrefully to make sure nothing is wrong.