Rear Hub Issues

I have a 1997 GrandPrix GT with the 3.8 non supercharged 133,000 miles everything is stock and original very boring.


I am having an issue with a thunking noise from the passenger side rear wheel area. I first thought it might be the exhaust rattling and change out the rubber hangers. while i was doing this i noticed the rear wheel seemed "loose" and would make the thunking noise when i would put both hands on the top of the tire and shake it. I verified that the wheel was correctly installed and looked in the chiltons which pointed me towards the hub. I picked a BCA hub and installed it. I might also mention that the old hub was very stuck on there and required some precise gentle persuasion to remove it. I took it out on the test drive and the thunk is still there and the wheel still seemed "loose" and thunked when i shook it. Did i get a bad part (low tire pressure light had been on and is off now) or should i keep troubleshooting? Also changed the brakes while i was in there. Thanks in advance for any help.

Cjeck the strut mount in the trunk. You will need to remove the strut to do this. It is possible that the mount is bad and causing the issue. Also check the bushings in the rear. A bad bushing can cause the same type of thumping. One last thing, if you have a rear sway bar check it too!

I did check the sway bar and sway bar bushings and they seemed ok. Which other bushings should i be looking at? Is the strut hard to get out?