Ok I did a bunch of reading but I was hoping somebody can still help me out. We have a 2012 G37X, stock suspension except for hotchkis sway's. My wife's friend has a 2009 G37X, which was bone stock. It is now out of warranty and she was having a clunking noise in the front end that I am trying to help her with (my wife's best friend so I figured I would help out rather then have her go spend a bunch of money at a shop) So I took it for a test drive and notice the clunk (almost a rattle at times) at slower speeds when hitting bumps in the road. So I took a look around at the ball joints, control arms, struts, motor mounts, etc. and everything looks solid. I did notice that one of her front sway bar bushing was in rough shape, cracked and starting to split, I recommended that she upgrade her sways anyway since I love mine as well. So I changed out the sways (figuring it was probably that bushing where the sound was coming from) torqued everything to spec and took it for a drive. Still the same problem but maybe a little better, it is hard to tell. With the car standing still if I rock the car from left to right pretty hard so the suspension is swinging from side (by pushing the side of the car around the top of either front window) I can replicate the clunk/taping noise. I doubled checked everything again and can't find anything with any play, also checked the exhaust and heat shields...

Problem that I'm having is that I'm working with two women (no offence ladies) which are not technical at all. When I rock the car and ask them where it is coming from, I get all kinds of useless answers, the most consistent is near the front middle favoring the passenger side. I tried having them put their hands on things like control arms to see if they can feel a tapping to try to narrow it down but to no success. I tried having them both at the same time rock the car so that I can feel around for it but they can't rock the car enough to make it do it. I hate to bug one of my buddies (since I moved none live close anymore) to help me out so I figured I would throw a post out here to see if anyone can give me any ideas.

I suspect the front end links because I've read about a lot of people having them go bad, but I can't feel any extra play in them...has anyone had them go bad without feeling any looseness?

 

here is a audio recording of the clunking sound, first group is from the RH side of the car, after the slight pause the second group is from the LH side of the car
any help would be greatly appreciated

 

So I had a buddy come over and rock the car side to side for me, problem is the passenger side front end link.
My question is are there any better options then OEM for end links on a AWD?
See other options if you have a RWD, but nothing for AWD.....

 

For anyone else searching since nobody answered me, there is no cost effective adjustable endlinks that fit the front of an awd other than OEM. If you want to spend about 450 there is, other then that spend about 50 each at the dealer and be done with it.
Moog makes some which you can order from advanced auto parts, not adjustable but can be greased. I have replaced the ones on my wife's friends car with OEM but if they fail me on my car in the future I'll probably get the Moog ones