Here's a video of the noise.


The noise seems to happen when the suspension is dropping and the shock is lengthening suddenly.

In the video, note the noises at the following times:

0:12 sec
0:25 - 0:35
1:00
1:06
1:12 (for this one I drove slowly off a curb).

I pulled the lining out of the trunk. I also pulled the spare tire out a couple of times to see if it made a difference ... it did not.

I have removed the rear sway bar and end links from the car for the time being to eliminate them as a possibility.

I have double-checked the tightness of the top mount bolt to ensure there is no play. I even added an additional washer on top of the top fender washer, just in case the threads on the post weren't cut down enough.

I've banged away at the suspension links from underneath the car with a rubber mallet, both with suspension loaded and hanging. Everything seems tight under there except for a bit of vibration I was able to get out of the shock every now and then. I've also banged on the body, door jam, trunk jam, trunk hinges, inside trunk walls ... nothing seems loose. The exhaust pipe seems intact ... I can move it around on the hangers, but cannot get it to hit the under body of the car. Under the car I cannot spot any metal-on-metal impact marks anywhere.

And, no, I haven't left the jack and tire iron loose in the trunk ... although that's pretty much what it sounds like I have those on the carpet behind the drivers seat.

I have the rear seat bottom out, and the seat belt buckles are wrapped in a blanket under there so they shouldn't be making any significant noise.

I pulled off the access cover to the fuel tank ... level gauge or fuel pump? Anyway, that panel is on tight, and the plug underneath it is also tight.

The rear bumper has a bit of slop in it -- I can get some noise if I bang it with my fist. The same goes for the trunk lid. But this noise sounds like it's coming from inside the car and has different clunk sounds than I've been able to get out of the trunk lid.

The shocks are Koni STR.T that I bought two years ago. When I bought them the gas pressure wasn't much. When I removed them recently to replace the spring and shock mount rubber I tested the compression-rebound by hand ... the shock on the left side had almost no rebound and on the right had no rebound.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get someone to drive around enough for me to sit back there and really close in on the source of the problem.

I'm thinking it's the rear shocks. What do you think?

Thanks. John

 

Just replaced the rear shocks with Sensen today ...

https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...-ex-4dr-61081/