Ted M. writes:
I have a 2005 Dodge Magnum RT with about 60,000 miles. Recently, I’ve heard a rattle or persistent clunk that sounds like its coming from the rear passenger side. I cleaned my car out to make sure there were no errant projectiles rolling around, but it still persists. Then I began to notice that it usually happened when I was turning left and accelerating up hill at the same time. I don’t hear it at speed on the freeway, or even turning left on a level or downhill grade. Every once in a while I hear it over violent bumps in the road, but not always. I’m taking it to the shop in a week or so, but I’d like to hear from you and the Best and Brightest about what it could be and what I should have them check.
Sajeev answers:
Luckily, you don’t need the Best and Brightest’s help: an honest (fingers crossed) mechanic puts your MOPAR on a lift, grabs a few springy bits and finds the offending loose part.
My guess is a bad anti-sway bar bushing, or perhaps the bar’s end link. If so, have the offending mounts replaced in pairs, as both sides are on their way out. Other parts that cause similar noises: the upper shock/strut mount, control arm bushings and maybe a loose ball joint. But my money is on the sway bar, because the noise arrives on uphill turns while accelerating. The other bits normally cause a racket in less demanding maneuvers; and scare you into the workshop at a much faster pace.
[Send your queries to mehta@ttac.com]
Similar symptoms last month in my ’06 Grand Prix GXP, same diagnosis. Relatively cheap fix that solved the problem.
What? You got a Dodge Magnum RT with about 60,000 miles and the only problem is a rattle/clunk? No, that’s not supposed to happen. Only Hondas can go that long without any problems (Toyotas used to, but alas, no more). Didn’t anyone tell you that Mopars are crap?
Seriously, it sounds like what Sajeeve said. If you want more info, go to the fourms at Allpar.com. They have one specific for the 300/Charger/Magnum.
Sajeev,
If the picture is your actual car and not a stock photo, NICE ride. Looks great. I hate you because it’s not mine. Have a nice day.
It’s the anti-sway bar bushing. Mopar bushings are finished by 60,000 kms (36,000 miles), especially up here in the great frozen north. (based on purely anecdotal evidence – several friends with Chrysler trucks and RWD cars have all gone through similar experiences)
windswords :
September 4th, 2009 at 8:15 am
What? You got a Dodge Magnum RT with about 60,000 miles and the only problem is a rattle/clunk? No, that’s not supposed to happen. Only Hondas can go that long without any problems (Toyotas used to, but alas, no more). Didn’t anyone tell you that Mopars are crap?
In general Mopars are crap. But that doesn’t mean that now and then a good one isn’t built.
While the LX platform is rather (or even remarkably) reliable, there have been problems with bushings in the rear suspension. Rear wheel bearings also fail on occasion – that will typically result in uneven rear tire wear (check the inside corner) and maybe even some vibration at higher speeds.
Magnum owning question asker here.
I had it into the shop about 2 weeks ago (there’s a waiting list to get into Piston Slap!). Mechanic couldn’t find any issue with sway bar bushings or other suspension components. They tightened up the debris shield, but a test drive found the sound remaining. Eventually we found the answer:
(drum roll)
Loose exhaust hangers. I had recently added a trailer hitch to my car to facilitate some moving, and we found the drivers side exhaust had enough play to bang the muffler against the hitch in low speed turns/bumps.
“Fixed” it by wrapping a piece of heater hose around the seam on the muffler to dampen any noise. A permanent fix may come down the line in the form of aftermarket exhaust with smaller profile mufflers that won’t reach…killing two birds and all.
So, I guess my now 65,000 mile MOPAR is still without major issue (and being reported as such on TrueDelta) but I will be keeping my eye on on the sway bar bushings since a few here have mentioned they are common problems.
moedaman:
I guess our 2003 Durango must be one of the lucky “good ones”. So far, not even the bushings have gone bad.
Sounds like a broken coil spring. I had the same noise in my escort the two times I’ve had to replace them. Poke your head up under the wheel well and have a look.
moedaman :
September 4th, 2009 at 8:51 am
windswords :
In general Mopars are crap. But that doesn’t mean that now and then a good one isn’t built.
I guess I got two of your so called non crap Mopars.
No problems at all until about 90K then I had to do some suspension work including sway bar kits.
the only thing crap are the biased opinions of the inexperienced bloggers.
FWIW my very favorite Honda CR-V needed swaybar bushings in the front at ~80K miles and swaybar endlinks by 120K miles. This is down here in the south where the roads are generally good. Of course it has spent some time on gravel roads and dirt roads.
I think it has alot to too with how stiff the suspensions on modern cars are adjusted. The swaybars are really working hard to keep us flat with modern sticky tires.
Check those endlinks, swaybar mounts, and shock absorber bushings. Suspension bushings if everything else is tight. If that all looks good duct tape yourself to the bottom of the car and have your wife drive down a rough road. Or cut a hole in the spare in the cargo deck.
Are you sure the lugnuts are tight? Sounds silly but a friend asked me to look at his Volvo. He’d been driving it for two days with a weird clunking/swaying feeling. About a half-mile from home I decided we ought to check the lugnuts but about that time a rear wheel passed us with a final clunk. No damage to the car except the wheel holes were ruined and the wheel studs needed replacement.
I’m surprised it wasn’t the coil packs or the CVT! ;-)
windswords
I could say a smartass comment on how Chrysler’s quality is so high that Fiat has nothing to worry about, but I’ll pass.
But let’s see, larger rear wheeled or four wheeled drive cars and trucks. Something that Chrysler has been building for quite some time. I should hope they are good at building those. And even then, they’re as good as what GM or Ford builds in those segments. How are those Calibers and Sebring/Avengers doing? You know cars that are in much more competetive segments?
There’s nothing wrong with the way Mopar’s or any other car are built these days. If something fails at 30k miles it’s a design flaw, blame the engineers. I should know, I was an engineer for Chrysler in the mid-90s. The few GM engineers we hired never lasted, they all had the same comment “The work one person does here is done by 4-5 at GM”. They couldn’t handle the workload.
And just for another data point my father’s Camry has had a swaybar rattle for at least 5 years. He’s going deaf so he doesn’t hear it, but it drives me bonkers when I go home to visit. At least the engine hasn’t died before 100k like his old “Iron Duke” Chevy did, pushing him over to Japanese cars for good.
I think that the exhaust system is banging against your recently-installed trailer hitch – I’d say to cushion the contact point with something made of rubber…
;-).
Glad it was something simple – and the inspection should give you peace-of-mind about the rest of the Mopar’s under-bits.
moedaman : In general Mopars are crap. But that doesn’t mean that now and then a good one isn’t built.
I do my best to never say stuff like that. BUT…after my Dad’s 2005 Chrysler 300C literally fell apart after 16k, I get it. Ours was less than 9 months old when these surfaced:
1. Loose rear bumper cover (don’t put heavy boxes on the bumper of a 2005 model while filling the trunk, take my word for it)
2. Choppy idle
3. Broken lumbar seat
4. Creaky stereo buttons
5. Excessive tire howl, no signs or cupped tires or anything odd like that
That said, the new Challenger seems better made than our 300, and they sure are cool looking.
tmerklin : Sorry for the delay, Piston Slap will no longer be FIFO, it’llbe more flexible as conditions merit. I shoulda answered this sooner, please accept my apology.
Sounds like its time for a Magnaflow catback. They sound good and I’m pretty sure it’ll fix the problem.
Good luck with it.
Current our 00′ Passat has the symptoms mentioned here and the dealer confirmed tie-rods as being bad, as someone mentioned tire wear is un-even too.
As for Mopars: my ’02 Dakota has been basically trouble free for over 73K miles now and use it for towing all the time. Right now only the headliner is falling down which is a problem that seems to plaque cars in hot FL.
However as far as rattles go, my father’s Chevy TrailBlazer had one that drove him NUTS for years, turned out to be a brake line that was bumping up against the pan under the drivers side seat. A piece of rubber foam fixed it, but he torn the entire center console apart TWICE trying to hunt it down. Never thought to look under the truck!
Not all Mopars are automatically crap. I may be the lucky one, but I have owned used Dodge Caravans since the early ’90s (an ’86, ’94, ’96, 2000, ’02 and ’03). I do not baby them, but drive fairly conservatively (easy on the gas and brakes, but always with a family), and I change oil about every 4,500 miles. I generally drive them 60-100K miles, and lose them around 170K. I had an engine blow in the 2000 at 130K, but the rest were reliable and economical. No complaints. Except boring. Like me.
JMII : However as far as rattles go, my father’s Chevy TrailBlazer had one that drove him NUTS for years, turned out to be a brake line that was bumping up against the pan under the drivers side seat. A piece of rubber foam fixed it…
Been there. A rear disc brake conversion started that problem, driving a friend of mine bonkers trying to find the source of the noise.
Then there was the time I upgraded the rear swaybar on my car, months later there was this terrible squeak that sounded like it was coming from the torsion bars in the trunk. NOPE! I had to re-torque the frickin’ bar.
ARGH! Bad memories! :)
Magnums are great looking cars. Kinda wish I had bought one but my penchant for manual transmissions always kicked those thoughts to the curb.
Sajeev: Don’t worry about the delay.
Sorry to hear about your Pop’s 16k lifespan on the 300. Although I can say that tire howl was an issue on my car as well, due to the uber-crappy Continentals that were OEM – it was remedied when I switched to Goodyears at 22k.
Supaman: I had wanted a Magnum ever since I saw the prototype a few years earlier. I lucked out and found this 05 model in the June 06 brand new on a lot. The first offer I received was 9500k below sticker. Couldn’t pass it up.
Now that I’m nearing the end of my 7/70k warranty, I’m debating about customizing it a bit – upgraded suspsension/exhaust/brakes … and a manual tranny swap would be primo.
@ windswords:
Seriously, it sounds like what Sajeeve said. If you want more info, go to the fourms at Allpar.com. They have one specific for the 300/Charger/Magnum.
There are a ton of good, knowledgeable people over at LXforums.com as well. They even managed to get an open thread with members of the SRT engineering team a few months ago.
@ tmerklin:
I had wanted a Magnum ever since I saw the prototype a few years earlier. I lucked out and found this 05 model in the June 06 brand new on a lot. The first offer I received was 9500k below sticker. Couldn’t pass it up.
My Magnum story is similar, but it sounds like you got an even better deal! Congrats!
tmerklin
Congrats man. Make sure you take care of her. Passing one of those on the road always causes a second look. There weren’t much deals on Magnums when I was in the market for a new car…at least not the ones I was interested in.
Congrats again!
As someone who has thoroughly beaten (someone else’s) two Magnum R/T’s (one past 70k miles and the other now reading just north of 80k) the gripes about quality come as something of a suprise. Suspension components (sway bar bushings, tie rods, etc…) do belong on the wear list for this car, but then, it’s a heavy ass, RWD, 340hp ride. I suppose you could (I do) bitch about the cost of a brake job, but that’s about it. Honestly, the car is just too big and heavy to ever join the problem-free category entirely, and certainly not at the price Dodge pushes them for. If you take the weight and performance capabilities of the vehicle into account it’s pretty hard to fault on quality grounds.
The automatic, while despicable in theory, is fine considering it was released when only top dollar cars rev matched on downshifts. Someone should be fired for the lack of a manual transmission option though.
I absolutely love my 49,000 miles, 2005 Magnum RT Hemi…..I’ll never let it go…..