I have had the Miata Clunk on my '01 front suspension for a few years and have never been able to fix it. I have searched and read countless threads on m-net and am aware of most of the causes. The clunk ususally occurs at low speeds over small bumps such as pulling into a driveway.

I have noticed two things associated with this.
1) It is much worse in hot weather. On a 90 degree day the clunk is very bad, on a 30 degree day it is almost non-existant.
2) When I first start the car, I can almost always reproduce it by cranking the wheel to the right and slowly backing up. Once the has been driven a few miles, this will not reproduce it.

I am fairly confident it is not from any of the following items.
- shocks or springs (replaced them)
- slider pins (well lubed several times)
- Caliper (does not happen only when applying the brakes)
- Alignment bolts (my alignment guy insisted they were tight and he does a lot of spec Miatas)
- Sway bar mount - Bolts are tight and bussings are lubed)

The only remaining thing I can think of is possibly control arm bushings.

Your thoughts please

 

Try putting some torque on the steering rack brackets. I did that and it pretty much cleared up the clunk when I first got my car.

 

Bad tie rod?