Front suspension clunk - tie rods, or, sway bar bushings?

I've had this clunking in the front suspension (felt in the steering wheel) after the car is driven for a while. Just last night, I drove home, annoyed as hell with the rattling clunking noise and feel. When I stopped in my garage, I moved the steering wheel right and left, and I heard the clunking at every left-right turn of the wheel. Is the consensus inner tie rods, or, could it be sway bar bushings, drop link bushings? My mechanic couldn't find the cause, but it's definitely not "nothing"! Can I check the bushings, or find play in the bushings, without putting the car on a lift?

My first thought would be sway bar links. I had something similar on my 99 way back when. The links are cheap and easy to replace. Just remember to tighten the poop out of them. I learned that the hard way. Thought they were tight "enough" but had to put a bit more umph into them and noises went away. How many miles are on your car?

My car has a mere 24k miles, so I bet the bushings go due to age? I

Seems odd with those miles. I hate suspension issues as they are hard to track sometimes.

Make sure everything's tight, then I'd suggest paying a couple bucks to a different Porsche mechanic to diagnose. I was chasing a "clunk" for a half year and replaced the upper strut mount bearings, control arm, and sway bar bushings, based on forum research/feedback, before taking it to my dealer and finding out it was the trailing arm. That was about $500 wasted. No disrespect to the forum, but there's lots of moving suspension parts to go "clunk" and it's pretty tough to diagnose via text IMHO.

I would bring it to another mechanic, but worry that they would replace the drop links and charge me $300 labor. On the other hand, me jacking up the front end and replacing the drop links myself, THEN still hearing the clunk - wouldn't be fun either. Does the low milage rule out one thing or the other (do trailing arms usually go at higher miles, etc)?

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You've had your car how many years and it only has 24k miles?!? Get out and drive that thing!

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Yeah, 5 years, about 1,500 miles a year - sad but true! I read online that the stock drop links are poorly designed, and often rattle, even if you replace them. Is that true?

From a thread on Renntech -seems like my problem: Play in the anti-roll bar drop links is a common fault on the 996 and 986. I have replaced all four of mine. Just as follow up, I replaced the front droplinks and the clunking noise from the front suspension is completely gone! When I held the old ones, the bolts were so loose that they would not hold in a still position and instead would immediately droop. For those interested, replacement of these is EXTREMELY easy (I watched the tech do it and paid $25 for it). You basically raise the front end, remove tires, turn the wheel to better expose the droplinks, each end of it requires an open end wrench and a socket. Installation of the new ones is the reversal of removal. All in all, took less than 20 minutes to do both sides.

The drop links are the easiest to diagnose for the same reason. Drive the car enough so it is warm enough that it does it all the time, and even better if you can stop near where there are enough road bumps that you KNOW it will do it all the time. Have some long tie wraps handy. Unbolt and remove the link from the ARB itself at both sides and tie wrap both ARB and links out of the way, then do the slow drive over the same bumps. If the noise is gone, you KNOW it is the links, if it is still there, ain't the links. I have the EXACT same annoying rattlles in my front end. Sounds quiet and tight when you leave the garage, but after things get warmed up after a few miles, when you drive slow over small sharp bumps/irregularites, it sounds like a rattle trap. I just put on PSS9s (with new strut mounts and bearings) a while back, and while that eliminated a bunch of creaking noise I had, it did nothing to affect the rattle noises, so I doubt it's the links in my case. I'm having my PS2s installed this week, then an alignment, and I'm going to ask the indie Porsche mechanic when he does the alignment what he thinks it is. I'd rather do the work myself, but it is impossible to tell for sure when you are on your own,as you well know. I'm thinking lower control arms or tie rod ends, but it's not like I want to replace them for no reason, so I'd rather have an educated opinion on it.

I've read threads that say inner tie rods is the cause, only when car is hot, BUT, they say it doesn't clunk when using the steering - only up and down suspension travel. I can duplicate the noise by turning my steering wheel left and right with the car stopped - clunk clunk clunk. They also say because our cars get so hot in front after driving, many mechanics can't diagnose the problem like a standard suspension loose condition. When the tie rods (or drop links) get hot, the joints stiffen, causing the noise/rattle. I would just as soon buy new drop links and install them, instead of removing them and putting them back if I hear the noise without them! So frustrating, I don't like driving the car with this rattle going on in the steering! So, does that mean it's probably NOT tie rods, or, could that mean it could be anything!?

I ordered replacement front drop links. I figure I can install those myself, and if that solves the problem, great. If not, I have new drop links, and will probably pay a mechanic to replace the tie rods (or at least try and find the real cause).