Help with clanking noise

I have a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am with 85,000 miles. LAst October I had the strut mounts and struts replaced (a $700 job) due to a clanking noise on the drivers side. For a while the clanking seemed to quite a bit but never went away. Although the clanking is not terribly loud it is very annoying. Once it started again I took it to a local shop where they told me it was the strut mounts. I told them I had them replaced a year prior by Firestone and they said that it was my problem. So I went to Firestone and they said it wasn't my strut mount, rather it was a bolt that needed tightening per a Pontiac notice just released! Guess what? The clanking is stil there! Does anyone have any ideas? Could it be the mounts? Please help I am going nuts!

Welcome to AF, we are sort of handicapped here, either this is a normal charactersitic of the model or the techs just have not pinpointed the problem, I would have a Pontiac dealer look at it and see if they have a definite guaranteed fix. Possible someone else may chip in here with a better solution.

Clanking happening on braking? My mechanic told me that clanking on braking was fairly normal under certain circumstances on N-body vehicles. He made some adjustments to the offending brakes to solve my clanking problems, and they went away :)

sounds like control arm bushing or sway bar bushing is worn

dont feel too bad about the clanking driving you nuts I came home from work last friday night and my 93 sat all last weekend on monday morning I had to leave for work and low and behold it started this weird clank grind noise and I can not find the problem I have checked all fluids everything is full there are no leaks the tranny is tight and the motor mounts are tight though when its in idle its not to bad untill I put it in gear but if I rev it up a bit it smooths out I dont understand how a perfectly good running car can go from great to s*** sitting over the weekend any ideas on this would help

I am having the same noise grind issue in the front end area on the drivers side for the past seven months... I am so FED UP with this issue! I have been to the dealer & they call this issue a REPEAT PROBLEM so its covered until they fix it!

Now the past 48 hrs Ive had service lights on & ABS lights too!
I was thinking what Ponc said above about the arm bushing or the arm area-
something w/ in the axle because my ex husband was a ASE mechanic & the bf before him was too --both at dealerships -- they could drive your car five min's and know what was the exact EXACT issue! these guys at this pontiac dealer seems high on something! Its like what gives : they dx my car with " a slight creak in the front end area -noticed - lubed & advised customer of repair issue" OK:???????? whatelse! did you find the culprit or not? I guess not!
Im going in again friday morning 8am again! 5th!!!!!!!!!! time!!!
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: HELp PLEASE! 2003 grandam GT-
this is my 3rd GrandAm and in the past 10 yrs...
1. highschool I bought a 1993 4dr grandam se- motormounts went.
ok that was fixed 750.00-
2. college I bought a 1995 new GrandAm GT 2dr- lease so all was ok! of course lol @#@!#@!
3. this is my 3rd Pontiac and well -- my bumper to bumper just exp'd so my ESP plan is in effect so now all is failing on me @#@!#@!#@!#@:screwy: :banghead: