UPDATE/CLOSURE

I just wanted to pop back here to post up what my solution was, in case there's anyone down the road that comes across this thread in a search. Thanks to 69Stang who gave me a great deal on a spare shock he had sitting around, the knocking is now completely gone. My shock was definitely blown. There weren't ANY signs of leakage or any other visible indicators of the shock failing. Once it was off the car though, I compressed the shock by hand and watched for it to return to full extension... It didn't. It would rise back up a few inches, then stop, and would not go any further without pulling it by hand. So, that's that. Thanks for all the input and advice to everyone who chimed in.

Hey guys. I've been chasing around this clunking/knocking for a good month or so now, and haven't had any luck remedying it yet. I thought I had it nailed down a few times, but those fixes didn't solve anything. These attempts included grinding down the front cradle washer more to provide more clearance for the trailing arm, as well as adding another shim to the rear springs to raise the rear ride height a bit more. Explanations follow...

Here's what I'm experiencing. On SHARP bumps (IE cracks in the road, sloppy thresholds between roads and bridges/overpasses, etc ... NOT dips in the road, NOT large bumps) I'm getting a knocking coming from the passenger rear side of the vehicle. The most it'll do it is on an old cracked, uneven road where if the shitty part of the road is long enough and shitty enough, the knocking will almost turn into a rattling. A huge dip in the road that almost makes you float out of your seat when you drive over it, though, does NOT cause any knocking.

Noteworthy: Without getting into too many unnecessary details, I'm lowered and running MM spacers withOUT the stand-offs installed. This means that the rear end "pumps up" about a half inch after a mile or so of driving. When this "pump up" happens, the knocking completely ceases. No matter how rough the road, the car rides as smooth and clean as you'd expect.

Given that little tidbit, I thought my ride height definitely had something to do with the knocking. So today I added another ~ 1/2" spacer to the rear springs [A hard rubber "donut" that I cut to sandwich between the top spring perch and the top of the spring (this is now coupled with a 3/8" spacer similarly installed on the bottom spring perch)], which gave me another ~1/2" of height in the rear and a ton more clearance for the tire and wheel, as well as more clearance from the front cradle washer for the trailing arm that comes close to it.

I thought that would clear up the knocking for SURE. But guess what? It didn't. It actually made it worse!! Now that I've spaced up/shimmed the rear suspension that bit more, the shocks no longer "pump up" (which is great...it rides much nicer in the rear now). But without the shocks having to pump up, the knocking doesn't go away like it used to. It's now there ALL the time. :-@

So... do you guys think this is a crapped-out shock? Or should I keep plugging away with checking clearances on various suspension components to make sure that nothing's making contact with it's neighbour(s)?

Thanks in advance guys! *cheers*

 

Swaybar end links... mine clunked real bad over bumps. I replaced them and now it is completely silent.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but my end links are in good working order. Had a good look at 'em yesterday when I was messing with the springs.

 

Mine is clunking driver's front with new end links.

 

You try sway bar bushings I got a popping noise from some weird roads

 

It could very well be a shock. Good luck finding it though. Those rear shocks are pricey SOBs.

 

Pretty sure it's a shock now that I've heard from some others about what they symptoms usually are. Thankfully a member over at CF had a spare with 50k lying around and sent it to me for $40 shipped. Lucked out on that.

 

I hope it works for you.

 

Updated first post to conclude the thread. Thanks again guys.

 

Awesome! Glad it fixed your problem! Same symptoms I had, no leaks on the shock and I could collapse it and it would not come back up. How many miles is on your car?

 

Just for my clarity; it was the rear shock?

 

Yes, rear...