Front Driverside Clunk, strut bearing?

I was driving the other day and a semi was in front of me. He hit a pothole and a giant chunk of concrete bumped out right in front of me. Before I could even react I knew my tire was going to hit it. It hit in the middle and sounded super awesome aka terrible. I then drove the car more and did not get a flat tire or any strange noises. That was yesterday. I drove it more today and did not notice anything but then later tonight I drove it and now it is making a clunking noise. I took the tire off to inspect " I have megan coilovers from previous owner" and I did not see anything that looked loose or broken. I then lifted up the rotor by hand and saw that the top of the strut where you can adjust it moves up and down just a bit and clunks. Is this the strut bearing? I wiggled the rotor back and forth and nothing else moves. Just when I lift it I get a clunk at the very top of the strut and see it move about 1cm. I tried to lift the passenger side and it does not lift up or clunk. Any ideas? I am new to this car and not a suspension guru. It sounds pretty clunky now over bumps but drives fine at speed. Anything else I should check?

 

Well that is not good. The 3 bolts up top are tight, as is the center?

If tight, time to remove and inspect. Don't drive it is my recommendation.

 

After more investigation it looks like the center bolt is loose. How do I go about tightening this? I took a video of it so I could look at it closer and when I did have it jacked up a bit I could spin the nut with my fingers.


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I just found this video and he is having the same issue. Looks like a simple fix. Will test tonight.

 

Fixed it!!! It was just that center nut, thank goodness. I used a little blue loctite too and did it on both of them so I hopefully do not have this issue again. Luckily I had one of those special socket wrench sets.

 

Usually an Allen wrench is in the middle, but that's for regular struts.

Glad it is fixed. If it happens again, blue or red Loctite the threads. I used red on mine.

 

Thanks man, yeah I used blue and I had a socket with an allen head just had to remove the adjuster dial to get to it. Harbor Freight tools FTW lol

http://www.harborfreight.com/21-pc-sae-metric-go-thru-socket-set-62327.html

 

Thanks a lot Johnny, now I have to buy more tools.