Front End Clunking

[donaldbc]

I am new to this club and new to Explorers ! About a month ago I bought a '97 V8 AWD, this is my first explorer and while driving over bumps, large ones and small ones I hear a "clunking" noise coming from the Front Passenger tire. What the heck is wrong? I have read many threads about this type of noise and can't figure it out. Also the noise goes away if I slightly apply the brake? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[wilk1]

It could be a variety of things, if the suspension is anything like the 91-94 I would check the bushings and the ball joint on passenger front.

 

[Exploder99]

is the wheel turned? when the wheel is turned all the way it hits the turning stop, when you hit a bump the rub together and make a nasty grinding noise. my dealer told me that it was the leaf springs inthe rear, go figure. if you're going straight or have the wheel slightly turned then it may be a loose strut. hope this helps and welcome to the board!!

 

[Flounder]

I have the exact problem on my 1996 XLT 4x4, except it is with both front tires. I haven't been able to find a source, so I am going to take it in under warranty and see what they tell me. If it is shocks, I am getting my own Ranchos (I don't like what I have been hearing on Edelbrock). If it is any chassis parts, I will let them handle it.

 

[donaldbc]

front end clucking

It occurs when I am going straight down the road. I read somewhere that it could be the ball joint,bushings, shocks, sway arm etc. I am going to put monroe reflexes on as soon as the come in from shockwarehouse.com and maybe I can pinpoint the problem then.

 

[kilroy]

Mine scrunches, but only at a certain point on a certain road and never anywhere else. Almost like I had an ice chunk in a wheel well that the tire was rubbing, but there isnt any ice in there.

 

[Flounder]

I was talking to my brother who had the same problem and he said it was the shocks. Lately I have been doing a lot of off roading locally and I have hit some bumbs hard (like 50 yards of hard bumps at 20-25 MPH - stupid, I know) Anyways, I need new shocks anyways, so we'll see how it works out.

 

[01EB5.0]

My 95 had a clunking from front. Ended up being worn ball joints and bad sway bar end links. The end links are under recall for 95-97 explorers so I would have that done. If that doesn't fix it then jack up the front of the truck and go to each front wheel and grasp it at the top and bottom and push/pull on it to try to get it to tilt. If you can get it to tilt then look behind the wheel while doing that and see which joint is bad. you can see the boot moving around the bad joint. This works for any year explorer. Just a word of advice: If one ball joint is bad, I would advise having the other joint on that same wheel replaced while they have it apart. I had a bad upper passanger side ball joint so I just had them replace it, but then later the lower went out. They said it would have been cheaper doing it all at once plus they have to do an alingment after replacing ball joints.
If anyone needs any more explaination of ball joints please e-mail me!