My 05 300C has the same problem. No play in anything when you have it on the lift. The racket it makes would make you think you should be able to grab the offending part and shake it around.

I've been told that's pretty common especially if the suspension is hanging when you check it. My tension strut bushing rubbers are checked/cracked at the frame like the one in the above picture but no more deflection than you would expect to see when you pry on a solid rubber bushing.

I've been told the sway bar bushings and links can cause it even tho they will seem to be solid. They are cheap and easy to change, so that will be the first parts I throw at it.

Kevin

Old thread here but just came across it. FWIW, the police Chargers have solid bushing tension struts. Maybe they can be purchased if you are going to replace any in your civi LX cars.

Yes , get the SRT brake strut/forward control arms if replacing them.Also they have an updated front strut mount that takes a lot of noise out.Check it by observing the movement under the upper strut nut while jacking up the car and you will see a lot of movement on the old design.It will knok while driving.I just replaced every thing on my 06 with stuff from Prime Choice auto parts online . Looked just like the factory stuff I took off , and drives like new.

The wife 07 chrysler 300 has a clunk in driver front somewhere......these would use the same as charger right?? We bought it used. Has biut 70k on it now. Right off the bat I said was a strut bad.....she had them look at it (next day of buying it) said they didnt hear anything (on pavement) and check everything. Didnt find nothen bad. We have bout 700 foot of gravel before our house. Thats the only place I hear the clunking

I have seen the sway bar links on the struts go bad, the only way to check them is on the ground, if you put them on a lift or jack up the front end and let the wheels hang...the links will hang and the little ball joints that they are made of will pull and tighten up..on the floor the weight is off of them..

I COMPLETELY SOLVED THIS PROBLEM ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO: The culprit was the front sway bar-to-frame (engine cradle) bushings! A small repair shop manager discovered this. We had the car up on the hoist & were checking out everything: ball joints, sway bar end link bushings, tie rod ends, & the front strut bar bushings. Then Ken (manager) comes out of the office - looks everything over, then grabs the front sway bar & reefs on it up & down & says "that's the problem." The rubber bushings looked fine - there was NO breakdown of the rubber & no splits, BUT the bushings were elongated - hogged-out. I said OK - I'll want to replace them with poly. I ordered them, got them in & had this shop replace the factory bushings. SOLVED the mystery completely! I would not have believed this if I hadn't witnessed it myself. The smallest bump at 5 mph sounded like the front end wanted to come apart, & it was like this for years!

Right here: http://www.carid.com/energy-suspension/front-sway-bar-bushings-mpn-5-5170g.html

What year LX was this on? Thanks.

My Charger was a 2007.

On mine (05 300C) it was a mix of sway bar bushings ( you would have needed a dial indicator to see the play) the left outer tie rod end and the ball joint on the left tension strut.

The racket it made over the smallest bumps would make you think the front end was about to fall off the car.

Kevin

Yep. That's what we got on our police cars. Seems to have been either entirely corrected or completely corrected now.

I drive a 2014 and still pretty low miles but it's tight and quiet. The new standard police package brakes on them (that was an early problem too) of 14.5" fronts and 13.8" rear are awesome, btw.

Yes, same as Charger. LX Platform.