Hi Dave,
My car has only done about 50k (37k when I bought it two years ago) but I suspect it has had a hard life. I had to replace the top strut bearings early on and have also replaced two of the engine mounts and the anti-roll bar bushes. I have suspected the wishbone ball-joints as being the source of my suspension clonks for some time, but despite investigations with pry-bars, have been unable to conclusively pinpoint them as the culprits. Others have mentioned similar problems, so it was really a process of elimination. I had changed the wishbone bushes - diagnosed by looking for forward and backward play in the wheel - I put my foot near the top of the wheel and pushed toward the back of the car, which resulted in about half and inch of movement. When I took the old bushes out they virtually fell to pieces. You should be able to see if yours are shot and may be able to pull them from side to side from under the car.
I found that if I hit the bottom of the anti-roll bar upwards it produced a definite clonk, and as I mentioned, my first replacement set lasted less than a year - so it's worth checking them for play before embarking on wishbone replacement.
I have to drive along a short section of unmade road to get to my house; this is where the clonks from the suspension were most noticeable. I think the problem as far as diagnosis is concerned is that if you test for play without jacking the car up you've got the weight of the car to contend with; if you jack the car up you've got the force of the coil springs working against you. When I examined my old wishbone I found barely noticeable play in all four swivel joints, but the difference on the unmade road is proof that even a small amount of play will result in a lot of noise.
Because I had recently replaced my wishbone bushes, I decided against going for the kit offered by DMGRS (though I'm sure it's very good) and instead bought a pair from Autodoc made by Stark (SKCA-0050081 and SKCA-0050083) Stark are a German manufacturer and, as far as I can see, the only ones to offer a three year warranty. Time will tell whether they were worth the extra money! I would be interested to hear how you get on,
best wishes,
Mike
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