Just bought my 08 panel Friday for an early x-mas gift and I too was concern about front & rear noise but, being a newbie and not familiar with 'normal' road noise, took it to my shop for a road test. Max said he didn't hear anything out of the norm up front but little clunking in rear and after a lift check, said probably a loose shock end. Will probably replace all stock shocks with an up-grade, nothing special..yet. Any suggestions?? Happy 2012

 

So you mean the bushings that go around the sway bar it self and hold it to the frame? I know in my case it was the end links that were bad-when the car was on a lift I could hold them in my hand and shake them and they would rattle and make noise. The sway bar seemed solid and I could not move it.

 

Yes, both can cause a clunk noise. End links seem to be the more common, but the bushings wear and get hard with age (and cold) as well.

 

I wish I would have replaced the sway bar bushing on my HHR when I had the end links changed about a month ago.

Replacing the end link on my HHR reduced the noise by about 90% but there is still a bit of noise when I hit some bumps and that is likely due to the bushings. Oh well, I can live with this level of noise but it sure would be nice if it was completely silent.