Clunk sound when veering left

I've developed a distinctive clunk sound, heard mainly when veering to the left, not so noticeable when sharp cornering, more so when gradually veering into a turn. Is this likely to be the steering rack? Hope I didn't damage anything whilst jacking up the car during my recent PU escapades. Wondering if it's worth me exploring further, or whether I should wait for the specialist to reopen. Think steering rack / suspension work might be out of my comfort zone. Could this render the car unsafe? Thanks in advance, DJ911

Not a lot to go on. Personally I would jack her up (maybe so both fronts are off the deck and have a look. Maybe with someone turning the steering to get a better idea of what is causing the noise. Clearly something is loose. Maybe something has sheered or one of the rubber grommets has failed. Pip

Without a better definition of the sound and location it's hard to say. Most likely a drop link. Easy to check, you can feel play in them when you try and move them up and down

Thanks for the comments, I'll jack the car up again and explore. Drop link replacement doesn't seem too bad if that's the culprit. Will update in due course.

Thanks for the comments on this so far. I finally managed to investigate a bit further (the resurrection of clunk). Just to recap, I hear a clunk, currently most apparent on turning hard right, heard loudest on driver's side. I've uploaded some videos and pics of the drop links in action on each side as they were considered potential suspects. **Drivers side https://youtu.be/RsPM3A78iok **Passenger side https://youtu.be/rPjb-LZ-Scc What do people think? The passenger side DL doesn't seem as sturdy to me and I note the rubber bush is thinner and the joint appears to be at a different angle? But then noise is louder over driver's side!? I have pics of the other suspension components if they're useful. I gave everything a good spray with lubricating oil and today whilst driving to work, I couldn't actually notice the clunk but expect it might return. Thanks for any thoughts, I'm a complete suspension novice. **Addendum - the clunk wasn't reproducible with the front axle on jack stands

Does anyone have any thoughts on the videos or pictures? The clunk is still there this morning. No worries if not, I'll get Zentrum to take a look.

You'll not be able to identify anything from the droplinks by looking at them as any wear is under the rubber boots inside the joints. Surely if you can recreate the knock doing that in the video you can hear/feel where it's coming from? Or is that not the knock but the steering rack hitting the end of it's travel. The drop link wear can be identified by pulling the link up and down and feeling if there's any play there.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the knocking is just the steering rack reaching the end of its travel as you say. I wasn't able to reproduce the clunk which must only happen with the weight of the car on the wheels. It's a strange one, I never get any knocks or clunks over bumps or holes in the road, just on veering right. I'll take another look and possibly just replace the drop links anyway. Otherwise I'll ask the specialists to take a look.

I once had the same problem. After 2 days of frustration with it I realised I had a fire extinguisher in the frunk that clunked everytime I turned right.

I decided to buy a pair of new front drop links in the end (TRW for £21 each) which seemed pretty reasonable. Just started this job tonight before children's bedtime. I have a C4S so it's meant to be a much easier job compared to the C2... Managed to get the lower bolt out pretty easily with a size 17 nut and a wrench: I unscrewed and removed the top bolt nut (without needing a wrench this time) but the bolt itself seems to be stuck tight in the hole. Gave it a light knock but I couldn't make too much noise as it was after 1900! Gave everything a good spray with penetrant before coming indoors and will try again tomorrow. Can anyone recommend a solution? Thanks

Looks like you're been struck by the galvanic corrosion fairies. Solution is time, heat, oil and the application of kinetic energy. Do a search of '986 drop link stuck' which should give you plenty of options. Luckily as you have a C4 the steel/aluminum interface is fairly minimal so it should be a bit easier to get things free than a 986/996 C2. However, I would suggest you might be able to avoid all of the above. Given you have been able to undo the lower mount you should be able to manipulate the upper and lower ball joints quite easily. Give them a good hard wiggle in all directions and you should be able to feel some play if any is present. If play is present you've found the culprit and it's time to get out the blowtorch. If it's not then you might want to look at the tuning forks which are comparatively easy to change.

Thanks v much for the reply, with the help of a "friend" (who charges by the hour), the drop links are off! I think his main advantage was a bigger hammer! (Sorry. Just realised how dodgy that sounds..). He also screwed the nut back onto the top of the bolt for more hitting area. Seemed to do the job after only a few hits. There was plenty of play in the old drop link joints and the passenger side top joint was split/damaged. To close the thread, I've test driven the car now and it seems to handle much better and I didn't detect the driver's side clunk I had before. I think there was a passenger clunk but not certain. Will do some more test driving. Thanks again for the comments.

was just watching youtube videos of a guy removing the strut from his 996. He was hearing a clunk on sharp cornering, as the spring unseated itself at the top of the strut. Had to remove the strutS and replace with new bump stops to fix.

You guys drive in a harsh chemical environment over there. Hard to believe the amount of corrosion on suspension parts, at times.

Looking at your pictures above those could well be the original control arms and they are known to clunk when worn, the rubber bushing begins to separate from the casting. Well worth changing the diagonal and lower arms plus track rod ends, it will feel like a new car believe me. Did the same job on mine earlier this year and drives like new. You can pick up all of the parts much cheaper than from Porsche through the usual, carparts4less, eurocarparts or a few trusted traders on ebay.