Hi I'm looking for any clue to where this clanking noise I hear while going over small bumps.
Just to give a little background. I thought it was my control arm bushings or lower ball joint. But I checked both driver and passenger side by jacking the car up and grabbing 3 & 9 then 12 & 6 to see if there was any play. There was no play at all. I proceeded to take off the tires and do a visual inspection. Nothing out of the ordinary and no bushing or ball joint was cracked. I then grabbed different parts of the control arm, tie rod and sway bar to see if I could shake them and hear anything. Nothing, everything was solid.
I also cannot recreate the sound unless driving over little bumps (smaller than speed bumps, more like the ups and downs in a old neighborhood street) at a moderately low speed (less than 20mph). It does occasionally happen while driving down main roads at higher speeds but not as often or pronounced. I also tried rocking the car on each corner while parked to see I could hear the noise and nothing. In a last ditch effort I opened each door and proceeded to stand on the door opening and bounce the car up and still nothing.
Any insight would be much appreciated because its driving me crazy not being able to find the source of the sound. Thanks

2010 Honda Fit Sport

 

You didn't mention if the sound was from the front or back. Anyhow, you didn't mention if you checked the brakes. Perhaps there is a caliper that is loose? If it's from the back, did you check if the spare tire is screwed in tight (or if there isn't something banging around in the spare tire well)?

 

You might also check the top mounting point of the front strut as well as the top and bottom of the rear shock, depending on whether the noise is from the front or rear.
I was once a passenger in a car that made a similar noise as the one you describe. Turns out the top nuts holding in a front strut were loose allowing the strut to move/clank/rattle when going over bumps.

 

Every Honda I've owned that had clanks or rattles over small bumps had worn sway bar links. Even if the strut bearings are bad replacing the sway bar links fixed 90% of the the rattling.

 

He mentioned the sway bars were fine in the first post.

 

Just shaking the sway bar by hand might not be enough to detect a clunking end link. My opinion.

 

Depending on whether or not one or both front corners are jacked up the links are under compression or fully extended and no play can be detected.

 

We had a pretty pronounced clank on bumps on ours, turned out to be a sort of internal sway bar in the torsion beam. There is sort of a C channel with the opening facing forward so you have to reach in to feel it. It's a decently sized round bar. Ours was basically torn off at both ends and flopping freely. (I welded it back into place)

 

Tire jack not fastened down good.