Well the saga continues. They fixed the TRE, but after wondering what the clunk noise was that wouldn't go away I found that the nut on the top of the damper was only done up about 1/2 inch. This means that even pushing on the left hand side of the car is causing the "crown" of the damper rod to hit part of the body work under the hood.

I guess because they put the old nut on and rounded it off, they couldn't get it up to torque properly.

Sods law also said that Halfords only had up to 19mm spanners of the type needed to do the top of the strut and the nut looks to be 21 ish mm.

Well they have one last attempt.

we use the gun to spin those off or on.
and if you use a multispline socket it can and does round it off

just a quick tip

get a socket of the correct size and grind 2 flats, one on each side and then you can hold it with an adjustable while you put an allen key down the hole in the middle(if thats how you stop the damper from spinning(thats how my vdub one were)) and there is nothing better than making your own tools

I had the exact same problem with SWMBO's Hyundai - the clunking was coming from driver's side front so we had all of the suspension off, inspecting every part for signs of wear. I put it all back together but the clunking was still there. Leaning on the front wing and looking into the engine bay for inspiration, I realised I was twiddling with the (less than finger tight) top shocker nut!!

10 seconds later the clunk was gone!