I'm having a similar problem on my 04 Ralliart Sportback. God awful crunching/grinding noise as the suspension in the front left. Sounds to be more during rebound then the compression phase.

I've had the car in to the dealership twice. The first time of course they couldn't hear anything and just "tightened up everything." In again last week as the problem is progressively getting worse and this time the replaced the bushings. Still no change.

This morning I got to work to see what I could find. I pulled the front left wheel and checked the brake pads to make sure they are secure. Then I noticed a brake line with a wire spring type deal around it that was all rusty. Moving it up and down made a pretty good grinding noise so I lubed it up and that noise is gone.

While under the car I also noticed that much of the undercarriage body work is plastic and fairly loose. Not sure if that may be part of the problem but there are several places where the plastic could be slapping up into other parts.

Into the engine bay next to see if anything was loose in there. The airfilter box was very loose. The two clips on top don't seem to be the correct size. So I bent them so they were tighter and shoved a couple pieces of thick rubber under them for a tigher fit.

The last thing I did was wedge some thin rubber into the Mitsubishi caps in the center of every wheel because those were loose enough to rattle as well.

Now the test drive. The car sounds much better now. Most of the residual rattling is gone but there is still the major crunching/grinding noise. It doesn't seem to be as severe, but I only drove it for about 5 miles.

Any other suggestions? Similar experiences? This noise is driving me crazy!!!

 

check on the suspension at the CV joint where there is like a rubber around it and see if the rubber is torn or has a hole or something.

 

Not a CV joint for sure. I've had plenty of those go bad in my old CRXsi. Boots on all four corners are in tack.

Thanks though.

 

does it go away when you turn to a curtian side

 

No, the sound primarily happens during suspension compression and rebound. Initially it was much more noticible in the rebound phase, now it seems to happen in both phases. Still more in rebound though.

Lately there have been occasions when I've actually felt a thud under my feet while driving as if something was slapping the underbody.

I'm really leaning toward a bad shock.

 

sway bar maybe