I'm trying to track down a loud pop/clunk/bang that happens when I do a hard, fast right turn (such as going through a tight slalom). My first worry was a ball joint, but they all appear tight. I found that my upper control arm mounting bolts are fairly smaller than the hole they go through. If I take them control arm out and put the bolts back in, I can wiggle the bolt back and forth with my hand, probably about 1/8" of play. Enough so that I can make some pretty good bangs against either side of the hole. Is this normal? There was also some freshly exposed metal in the hole, but perhaps that happened as I was spinning out the bolt.

Other than that, I can't find anything that would make the popping. The ball joints are tight, all the bolts on the frame are tight, I disconnected the swaybar and the noise remained, the engine mounts are tight (and only 1 year old), I took the shock (Koni yellow) out and inspected the spring and it seemed fine. The hubs are tight, and also one year old. I tried different wheels. There just can't be much else to check. It makes it hard to push the car to the limit for auto-x when I'm a bit worried about a wheel taking off on me.

So has anyone else seen this kind of play in the upper control arm bolts?

 

The bolts are designed to pinch the bushing on the control arm....so with no control arm in the hole they won't tighten

 

I think these bolts are 12m; check the size