Front End Noise!

[Kerisseler]

My '97 Explorer is making a "thunking" type noise. It is coming from the front passenger side wheel area. Everything seems tight in the suspension and the sway bar ends are fine as are the ball joints. The dealer and I checked these out. There is no play in the wheel when it is lifted off the ground. The brakes are good also. It does it going straight in 2wd & 4wd and the road dosnt have to be that bumpy. More noticable around 25-30 mph. But the strange thing is it only happens under 45 degrees and seems worse the colder it is. Getting hard to find now that the temps. are raising. I have read about every thread about this and tried all I can think of. Any help would be great, it is driving me nuts, which is what my wife thinks about it. But I am concerned with something happening on the road.

 

[bgracen]

I'm sure your problem is your front sway bar bushings. The problem is so common, that ford has had a recall on them. Replace your two bushings on the bar with new ones from ford, and replace your endlinks with polyurethane after market ones. This will take care of your problem.
-Dube

 

[yob_yeknom]

There was another thread about pads on the back ends of the torsion bars wearing out, causing thunking noises even when just going over small bumps. Do a search and try to find it.