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Front End "Clunk" while Braking Over Bumps


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I have a 2018 Journey SE with 24,000 miles and mine started doing the EXACT SAME THING! Verbatim as your Journey does. I’m taking it to the dealer to have some other parts out on to see if it gets fixed, but if not I’m taking it back and going to have a tech ride along with me so I can duplicate it for them and see what they say. Mine has the noise on the front driver wheel. Honestly thought it was the strut, but the strut and other components look fine. First dealer I took it to said everything was tight and no rubber boots broken on any of the joints or anything. Sounds like rubber rubbing metal or a “squeegee” type sound. If the dealer tells me it’s normal for the Journey then I won’t worry about it. This is my first Journey and I love the car, but this noise stated in mine about a month ago. It’s more annoying than anything. Would be nice to have it fixed though. 

Edited by JHJourney
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55 minutes ago, JHJourney said:

I have a 2018 Journey SE with 24,000 miles and mine started doing the EXACT SAME THING! Verbatim as your Journey does. I’m taking it to the dealer to have some other parts out on to see if it gets fixed, but if not I’m taking it back and going to have a tech ride along with me so I can duplicate it for them and see what they say. Mine has the noise on the front driver wheel. Honestly thought it was the strut, but the strut and other components look fine. First dealer I took it to said everything was tight and no rubber boots broken on any of the joints or anything. Sounds like rubber rubbing metal or a “squeegee” type sound. If the dealer tells me it’s normal for the Journey then I won’t worry about it. This is my first Journey and I love the car, but this noise stated in mine about a month ago. It’s more annoying than anything. Would be nice to have it fixed though. 

just get used to it,just about every one has the same noise,mine included

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3 hours ago, 2late4u said:

just get used to it,just about every one has the same noise,mine included

 

On 1/2/2015 at 12:39 AM, 2late4u said:

i hear a slight clunk when hitting certain bumps or pot holes,hardly hear it and haven't been worried about it, same as the trans every once in a while will make a noise going from park to drive or reverse. not bad enough to complain about

My journey makes a clunk noise after the trans is warm when shifting from drive to reverse. Also jerks when shifting into drive from park after trans is warm. I think it’s just the way the linkage is. A family member of mine had an ‘06 Pacifica, which essentially is the same body style as the Journey, and hers made the clunk noise when shifting from drive to reverse when the trans was warm. 

Edited by JHJourney
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3 hours ago, 2late4u said:

just get used to it,just about every one has the same noise,mine included

It’s sounding like this is a very common problem with journeys no matter the year. This is my first journey and didn’t know this was a problem with them until a month ago when mine started making this noise. Also sounds like Dodge doesn’t have a cure for it. Mine rides solid on the road except for this annoying noise that apparently characteristic of the Journey. I love the Journey and always wanted one, but it’s kind of disappointing they have this issue. It’s too bad. 

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some say they think have  found the reason for the squeak when going over bumps or pot holes, but no real solution, some say the strut bearing collar at the top is the culprit as well which makes sense it only happens when going over a small bump or whatever,,,, and yes every once in a blue moon i have gotton the clunk from the trans shifting as well but has been a very long time since i have heard  it and have 110 k on my 2014 

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after reading this posting ,, i decided to use some DuPont dry film silicone spray that i bought off amazon, as i had read somewhere that a person used something like this to spray the bushings under the front end to help with squeaks and they said it helped,  at first i did the upper strut collar with wd 40 and regular silicone lube and just sprayed the hell out of both sides and took it for a drive and  the squeak was still there so came back and turned the wheels all the way to the left and then used the DuPont dry film spray on the sway bar bushings and also i believe it is the lower control arm that connects to the body of the car or frame, and then also sprayed the strut arm stabilizers bushings as well ,  did both sides and then the wife and i took off to her Dr office about 30 miles away  in a bigger city so did a lot of twisting and turning going thur that town and never did hear the squeak again i believe it was the control are bushings was the ones making the noise, dont know how to post a picture but it is the bushing i sprayed, was around the size of a hockey puck that was bolted up to the frame, flat side up,,, will re post the  results on how long it last squeak free this DuPont dry film lube is supposed to last a long time according to their literature i had bought it 4-5 months ago and forgot to try using it with everything that has been going on with the wife's health problems

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It’s never a great time for health issues; and right now has to be the worst time. Hope she comes through it ok.

 

Trouble shooting with spray lube, cool idea. WD40 never seems to stay long as a lube.

 

I found a pic of a lower control arm, it’s posted below. Bushing are available as a separate part but you probably won’t find a Tec interested in changing just the bushing. Between the rust that builds up on the arm and the labor required to press in bushing; more cost effective to change whole arm. Sometimes alignment needed afterwards.



 

 

 

 

70C98A70-B059-4775-AD75-6FD2871B3E3F.jpeg.2ce8c28d060edf998cbb59a514965414.jpegBF6C1C1D-90CA-46B3-AEAD-53A170F678B9.jpeg.46746042d25d104574ae4a507b8a0a48.jpeg

 

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Tie rods and ball joints are tire eaters $ and big potential safety issues. Never good having tires pointing in different directions.

Sway bars and lateral links clanking more annoying than safety. Affect handling a bit so eventually have to be addressed.

Journey suspension more involved then a lot of simple Mac strut systems on the older cars;  but handling is better.

If you can isolate noise down to specific bushing or part so shops can’t play top 10 guesses; you can save your self a bit of money. The quality of roads you drive on have a large effect on suspension component durability IMO.

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On 1/7/2015 at 10:44 AM, JRodMTB said:

Interesting that there are others that have a similiar issue. My wifes RT only does it when the brakes are applied - but yeah, a speed bump would most definitely cause it to make a noise. Hopefully this is an isolated issue but the 2012 SXT we have makes the same noise.

Talked to the dealer this morning and they have a new strut on order, which they believe will fix it. They've had it over a week, so I'm crossing my fingers...

My 2018 makes the exact same noise and under the same condition of braking as yours does. I took mine to a dealership and they said the tie rods, ball joints, etc looked fine, no broken boots on anything or anything else. Took it to another dealer and they replaced the driver seat frame, but it still does it because it’s outside the car. The noise on mine comes from the driver side front wheel. It does it when the brakes are applied at low speed while going over a hump or dip in the road, and also does it when bearing left around a curve while brakes applied at low speed. Think I’ll take it back to the dealer and have them recheck the front suspension, bushings etc, and if they say everything is fine, then I’m not going to worry about it. It drives solid on the road and over bumps and such, only hear the noise under the above notes conditions. It still has the dodge factory warranties on it until 10/2021 and also purchased an extended warranty through the dealer I bought it from, so it’s cover up til 2025 or 125,000 miles and has almost 25,500 on it now. It’s a great car other than that. For my own peace of mind though I’m going to have it checked again by my dealer and won’t worry about it much after that since this seems to be an on going issue with no real permanent fixes and from what I’m hearing is mostly a quirk and not a safety hazard, which the latter is what I’m mainly concerned about. I can live with the squeak, but safety is my main concern as I drive mine pretty much daily. 

Edited by JHJourney
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If you know which wheel it is, I would suggest raising that wheel just a bit off the ground (with a support under the lower control arm, not the frame, so that the weight is still on the suspension.  Then have someone apply the brakes, and see if you can get it to make the same noise by trying to rotate the wheel back & forth.  (If it moves at all, it will only be a bit.)  The purpose of this test is to see if the noise is coming from a slight slack or movement between the two parts of the calipers.

Edited by Neto
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/4/2021 at 5:22 PM, 2late4u said:

after reading this posting ,, i decided to use some DuPont dry film silicone spray that i bought off amazon, as i had read somewhere that a person used something like this to spray the bushings under the front end to help with squeaks and they said it helped,  at first i did the upper strut collar with wd 40 and regular silicone lube and just sprayed the hell out of both sides and took it for a drive and  the squeak was still there so came back and turned the wheels all the way to the left and then used the DuPont dry film spray on the sway bar bushings and also i believe it is the lower control arm that connects to the body of the car or frame, and then also sprayed the strut arm stabilizers bushings as well ,  did both sides and then the wife and i took off to her Dr office about 30 miles away  in a bigger city so did a lot of twisting and turning going thur that town and never did hear the squeak again i believe it was the control are bushings was the ones making the noise, dont know how to post a picture but it is the bushing i sprayed, was around the size of a hockey puck that was bolted up to the frame, flat side up,,, will re post the  results on how long it last squeak free this DuPont dry film lube is supposed to last a long time according to their literature i had bought it 4-5 months ago and forgot to try using it with everything that has been going on with the wife's health problems

it has been over a month now and the squeak started to come back about 2,5 weeks ago and i resprayed the round bushing on both sides of the journey

and the squeaking is gone, must be the way it rest against the body bracket and the kind of bushing material they used

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Sometimes the rubber degrades and gets weaker;  the extra movement is transferred to the bolt/bushing which is mild steel.

 

The metal bushing wears very quickly and you get squeak/clunk until new rubber assembly is there to properly pick up movement.  Or the lube allows extra movement and covers up noise from worn item. Eventually lube won’t work I think.

 

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  • 1 year later...

My experience from front end noise from the journey can be,

 

#1 bad sway bar links or bushings 

#2 catalytic converter hitting heat shield 

#3 sticking brake caliper 

#4 rear engine mount 

#5 front engine mount 

#6 side engine mounts

#7 ball joints

#8 cv axles or intermediate shaft

#9wheel bearings, 

#10 lower control arms

#11 bad struts

#12 exhaust hitting subframe

#13 subframe bolts loose 

#14 sometimes  the exhaust will hit the floor under the truck if the engine mounts are bad enough to cause cabin bangs from the center area by your feet under the shifter look for rub marks missing paint or scratches, if everything looks good then start replacing things one at a time cheap. To expensive I'm on the same road 

DrivehardDaily

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  • 1 year later...

I hear a clunk on the front drivers side but only when its really cold out, it does it once then stops till the next day. I'm thinking it may be a sway bar link but have not had it inspected yet.

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