There is a hard almost metallic knocking noise coming from the right wheel well whenever I drive over uneven surfaces and occasionally while turning any direction. Somedays it's louder than others. I looked around under there and found this.



It seems like part of the upper control arm is hitting the black wrapped wire/line along with the metal plate above it.

Anyone have any idea as to how this can be fixed or have had similar issue? Would it be an alignment fix this? Im pretty clueless regarding suspension work unfortunately.
Thanks for any input!

 

Like you I know SFA about suspensions but there seems to be a larger than correct gap between the suspension arm and the bushing (just below the red circle) and maybe just maybe the large nut underneath needs to be done up a few more turns to pull the arm down and close that gap????

Edit - just had a look at mine and there is a much smaller gap under the bushing, around 1 mm. But that is with the car on the ground and the weight on the suspension, and I'm guessing your pic is with the front corner jacked up, seeing as I can't see the top of that bolt on mine but you can see it in your pic.
Also on mine the same number of bolt threads are sticking out below the nut which suggests the nut on yours is fully done up.

 

That's an interesting point with the bushing gap.. ill have to see if I can somehow tighten that up a bit because the car was NOT jacked up when I took the pic. Ill take a look at my driver's side in the morning and compare that as well.

 

Good to know your car was not jacked up which confirms to me that the gap between the bushing and the lower arm in your pic is waaay more than it is on my car, in the order of 4 mm vs 1 mm.

Just looking at mine again and comparing to yours on mine the two halves of the rubber bushing look to be about the same thickness, around 3 mm, while on yours they look thinner than that especially the top half. I'm now guessing that that bushing on yours has collapsed/compressed and needs to be replaced.

 

The bushing being discussed may be your issue, or not.

By all means, try and assure that the control arm is or is not hitting the body. A blob of play-doh or potters putty on the top of the control arm will tell you for sure if there is contact when the noise occurs.


But with today's modern suspensions, there could be several origins of a clunk. A small bit of play (not discernible by prying) might create the noise.
As a diagnostic, I would recommend injecting a bit of grease into any rubber boot that you see (upper or lower ball joints, sway bar link ends, NOT CV boots). You can use a needle fitting on the grease gun to inject it without future worries.

 

I did check both my front driver and passenger side bushings, and they do both appear to be a lot more compressed as OzXFR mentioned. The top part is thinner than the bottom, and the bottom gap is about a quarter inch (~ 6mm).

Since both side bushings are the same but the knocking is only on the right side, I guess the bushing isn't causing the knocking noise. I'll still consider getting the bushings replaced in the near future tho! Thanks for that!

I'll go ahead and try Carbuff2's suggestion about using putty to confirm contact with the control arm and body. From the first pic I posted, the red circle shows very smooth and shiny metal indicating rubbing with other metal. If this is the case, Im wondering if I can somehow move the control arm slightly back somehow or maybe file away some of the metal I was pointing at in the 2nd pic to avoid further rubbing..

 

That contact evidence could be a result of a single 'bottoming out' from a pothole or something.

If you get the noise on more common uneven road surfaces, it isn't likely to be from the control arm contacting the body. Just sayin'.