Rear End Clunk

[Madmaxd]

2003 GS 300 (75,000 miles)-- When backing out and coming in to the driveway (as well as hitting rough pavement and speed bumps. My GS is making a clunking sound in the rear suspension or rear end. It is usually on the right (passenger) side but sometimes on the left.

Has anyone experienced bushings for the diff or ball joint issues? ...or anything similar? Ride and handling are the same...

[DJSin]

2003 GS 300 (75,000 miles)-- When backing out and coming in to the driveway (as well as hitting rough pavement and speed bumps. My GS is making a clunking sound in the rear suspension or rear end. It is usually on the right (passenger) side but sometimes on the left.

Has anyone experienced bushings for the diff or ball joint issues? ...or anything similar? Ride and handling are the same...

If i'm not mistaken, it sounds like the bushings in your rear suspension is going bad. Check for daizen bushings. You can look here -->Daizen Bushings

Some say polyurethane is the best way to go rather tham OEM. I need to change my front bushings too. I get vibration at high speeds and my car mileage is around that age to get this kinda problem.

Hope this helps!

[fernlex]

2003 GS 300 (75,000 miles)-- When backing out and coming in to the driveway (as well as hitting rough pavement and speed bumps. My GS is making a clunking sound in the rear suspension or rear end. It is usually on the right (passenger) side but sometimes on the left.

Has anyone experienced bushings for the diff or ball joint issues? ...or anything similar? Ride and handling are the same...

My 98 GS 300 is clukning also. I experience it when comming off of higher speeds and usually after several miles of Driveing. I couldn't pin point it for a while and I too thought it had to do with the suspension,Bushings, Bearings,ETC... in the rear. Until finally I caght the exhuast viberating after I had parked and car. It was idleing rough and made the exhaust rattle and clunk. I still have'nt figured it out because it does'nt always clunk or rattle. If anyone out there has any tips please help... Because it's really annoying...

[nc211]

Exhaust: Check the rubber hangers underneath the car. One might have broken, causing it to sag and move around. Some movement of the exhaust is normal though, as the whole thing is hung by rubber O-rings. This is the case for most cars actually.

The rear end clunk noise. It's most likely the rear carrier bushings. This is common on the LS and GS. If you look at the rear suspension, look for the control arm that has the forward most connection point to the frame of the car. This is the carrier. Since our cars are rear wheel drive, that forward holding control arm takes most of the torque. After a while, those little rubber bushings simply start to wear out. They've been pushed/pulled upon for long, they start to either get very soft, or simply crack, which results in the bolt that runs through the middle of them to start hitting the outside of the bushing mount. This is common at this mileage actually, and is usually the first bushing to go in the system.

There are some options, one of which was already mentioned, the aftermarket route. Some Lexus dealers use these aftermarket bushings to save the customer money from having to replace the entire arm. I believe they're called a ASUS bushins repair kit. They're polyurethane (sic) and are much harder than oem. The upside to this is that they don't bend as much as the oem set up, which holds things in place much firmer. The downside however, is you have to rememebr the suspension set up isn't just one bushing, but several in several different arms that all work together in concert. If you introduce a much harder bushing in the mix, you run the risk of realizing how worn out the other bushings are as well. You have a much better chance of things "adapting" better by using oem parts. I had the ASUS repair kit done on my former 95' LS for the rear carrier bushings. If I had to do it again, I'd probably just spend the extra money for genuine oem. By the time I was done with my LS, I had replaced all of the suspension components with new oem parts, except for those ASUS bushings. I chased vibrations throughout that car for years.

Replacing the part isn't hard at all. It's two bolts actually. One to the car's frame, one to the wheel hub. You can order parts online from places like parts.com for much cheaper than the dealership. These are genuine Toyota parts too, not aftermarket. Outside of the cost for the parts, and the garage time logged to install them, the only other expense you'll face is a new alignment, which is crucial to have done whenever you introduce new parts like this. For instance, I replaced my front lower ball joints in my GS about 10 days ago. Just those two parts alone have thrown out my alignment something fierce. I'm scheduled to get it aligned today actually on a hunter gsp9700 machine, but don't think I'm gonna have the time to make the appointment. 4 wheel alignment is about $90 bucks.