Unwanted noise found!
 

Since switching to all poly front bushings, I've noticed an increasingly annoying clanking in the front end, especially over bumps and curbs at low speeds. I attributed it up to the hard bushings and lived with it. Today when I was getting my car ready for the track for this weekend I found that one of my shock inserts retaining nut, (not the top one in the trunk but the one that requires a special tool to keep the insert in the strut housing) was completly off and just sitting on the shock. It was previously hidden by the boot cover. The nut had loosened up and the shock had no retention in the housing so it would lift and then bang into the bottom of the strut. No wonder it was noisy. The other side is loose but still on. I had just placed these last year and used the special tool. Now when I put them back on, I'll use some blue loctite on top of torqing these as hard as I can. You can check these when your wheel is off by lifting up and down on the strut housing. Any play and they've come loose. And to think I almost spent 2 days at the track with unbolted shocks!