I have a 2010 GMC Acadia. Within the last few months whenever I hit any kind of bumps something rattles in the front end. I put brand new struts on and went and had the car aligned still the same problems but now the sound is 10 times worse after I installed the new struts. So I take it to the dealership and they look at it and everything looks nice and tight no issues but maybe the sway bar link so I buy two along with buying 2 new control arm. I get everything back together and take it for a ride same sound nothing changed and I’m now $850 into this and nothing is resolved. What the heck could it be ? HELP !!!

Check sway bar to frame bushings. Any play around rubber will make a bumping rattle sound....Only takes very little play..

Were the upper strut mounts changed?

im with the bender on this one.upper strut mount bearing plates

I bought a complete strut unit with spring and all...

There is a GMC Acadia owners forum out there, you can find it with a quick Google search. Most models have a forum of some kind and they are usually a wealth of information, especially in a case like this.

quote:

I bought a complete strut unit with spring and all...

That's not to say you necessarily got the upper bearing the strut rotates on.

Please forgive me if I sound dumb but I bought the whole spring : strut kit and everything is one complete kit so basically you take the three bolts off the top just below the windshield wipers and bolt the new one back up all I had to do on the new strut was rotate the bolts around to match up with the existing strut I took off.

Sway bar frame bushings as said above,cheap and easy try.

check your hood mounting bolts sometimes they get loose and rattle over bumps

also frt. brake pads rattle also over bumps remove wheel and use a rubber mallot and tap the caliper and see if you hear any rattling.

Also the steering coupler gets loose and rattles over bumps

My Envoy had a rattle in the LF. It turned out to be a loose bolt in the inner fender. Jack the frt. and beat on the tire with a rubber hammer and see if you can duplicate rattle.

Checked all these things ....still rattling under drivers feet every time you hit a bump. I bought the sway bar rubber bushing. That’s the only thing left to change and the front end will be new !

I even unhooked the sway bar links and drove it down the road and the noise was still there. So wouldn’t that remove the sway bar bushings out of the problems ?

Wonder if I got a defective left strut ?

If it got much worse after installing the struts, that's a pretty safe bet.

The steering coupler is right under your feet as mentioned previously,replace it problem solved.

quote:

still rattling under drivers feet every time you hit a bump

sure sounds like steering shaft

Tighten the subframe bolts