MK6 Jetta TDI - Front strut mount clunk

Hey guys,

I've been chasing a clunk for a year now and tracked it down to the strut mount. When I take off, and sometimes when I slow down, I hear a loud click/clunk from the suspension. I've replaced the dog-bone mount, the lower control arm bushings, and checked everything else. The clunk has not improved, so it's got to be the strut bushings. Now, the dealer sells the mount, and the bearing that goes inside separately. The question I have is, what part goes bad? I don't want to replace good parts if I don't have to, and this car isn't that old yet. I've never had a car that needed these replaced, so it's my first time dealing with this issue. Does anyone have any experience on the matter?

Sure it's not the spring? Both of our fronts went and sounded the same.

How can you tell a spring is bad? I've never heard of that before.

Have you checked the end links? Both ends links needed to be replaced on my 2010 Jetta.

How do you know it's not the strut itself? Are there any signs of a leaking strut?

Nope, struts look good, and the car rides over speed bumps well, the dampening is good on both sides (tested independently). But the right side gives that clunk.

Visually, or audibly.

Broken front coil springs

Third Broken Spring!

Incidence of broken springs

Broken rear coil spring

2011 rear spring replacement

These were the 1st 5 that came up on the search. Probably 10+ more after that.

Holy crap! I'll be sure to check as soon as I have a chance... so apparently those bearings do fail... strange. It's not like they do a lot of spinning... I feel like the MK6 was the poorest made car of all the TDI's

Well, I checked the spring, and there is no obvious break in it, but the clunk is present as ever. I noticed that the boot on the sway bar links is a bit torn, but when I took them off to inspect, they were solid as can be, no play in the ball joints at all. Could they still be bad despite feeling okay?

IDoSeaDoo said:

Well, I checked the spring, and there is no obvious break in it, but the clunk is present as ever. I noticed that the boot on the sway bar links is a bit torn, but when I took them off to inspect, they were solid as can be, no play in the ball joints at all. Could they still be bad despite feeling okay?

Click to expand...

Man your story sounds exaclty like my car.

I replaced struts complete with bearings (Monroe Quickstruts), both wheel bearings (kinda needed) and checked the play of the ball joints.

Tested the TTY bolts for the sub-frame, wasn't the sub-frame clunk.

Ends up it was the cheapest and easiest part which when unladen, I didn't feel was a problem. Sway bar end links! The boots were in perfect shape.

Shake my head at that one, 30min to do both and never heard a clunk again.

Oh man, I hope it's the struts, as I already bought a whole set, and the strut tower mounts. Can't return it as I've had them for months now...

yep same issue. Sway bar end links, drivers side was bent. pass side was worn out. replaced, problem solved. I am happy now.

I checked them. I unbolted one end on each side, and the links felt pretty sturdy. Not loose or bent. When you removed the old ones, were they loose? Did they obviously appear to be bad, because I could swear that mine are good.

I had the same problem. For me it was the bearing. When I pulled the strut the bearing was actually broken into 3 pieces.