98 CV Joint Failure and front end noise

[hopatcongGPR]

is cv joint failures a common thing on the explorer near 100k? mine just failed @ 93k. they look like an easy repair and @ 65 bucks for a carquest reconed assembly its cheap enough to do both sides....anyone price fords out lately? over 300 per side.

also, the fornt end makes a "clunk" when it goes over bumps. first i though it was a bad shock, replaced them, its still there. then i thought ball joints, lifted the front end and everything feels tight.

any ideas on where the clunking is coming from? A arm bushings look good as well as sway bar bushings. this one is getting anoying real fast....

 

[Doug]

Is it alot of thumping/tapping when you go over bumps? or is it occasional thumping. Front end noises on explorers can sometimes be hard to diagnose. It's possible it's your swaybar bushings and I don't believe you can tell if they're bad by just looking at them. Do a search on front end noise, you should find alot of info on what people did to correct the problem. As far as CV shafts going @ 95k miles It's certainly possible it went if the boot was ripped, I've got ~128k on my stock CVs and most people seem to go a bit longer on thier stock CVs.

 

[Lifted95X]

You could have a loose tierod.

 

[Doug]

have you checked the nut behind the wheel?

 

[99explorer5.0]

My CV joints needed to be replaced after around 13,000 miles. I think they blamed it on me doing AWD doughnuts during the first storm.

 

[hopatcongGPR]

boots were in good condition...ill take a look at the tie rods...

from what i have seen, if the sway bar bushings are bad they tend to look "squished" and you can see the impact points from where the bar may be hitting.

the noice is like a 'clunk" when you hit a bump or jo over speed bumps. the truck was also at the dealer last year and they couldnt diagnose it either. its been doin it for a longggg time. were just tired of hearing it and figured we would re-visit the issue since the front end is going to be torn down for the joints....

ill just have to take a long hard look at everything one more time. its just an old issue that were tired of...

 

[hopatcongGPR]

guess i should add, it wouldnt suprise me if someone turned back the odometer before us. i thought other things went premature on this truck as well. this one is just more icing on the cake.

 

[STANN]

I had the same clunk (i think), and from what I found out, its usually just an annoying of our torsion bar suspension.