Loud knocking from front end

[pup5581]

This happened the other morning as well but today it did it again. Over bumps it will have this loose/knocking noise. I am also having an issue with a howling and oscellating noise at certain speeds that the Ford tech heard and it goes in Monday.

They are putting it on the lift Monday and driving it at that speed to listen to everything.

Knocking over bumps so it has to be something suspension related just wondering what

 

[613GT500]

Lots of info here
http://www.explorerforum.com/xenforo/index.php?threads/2011-explorer-tsbs-ssms.343204/

 

[CommandPresence]

Mines doing the same, in and out of a driveway, low speed clunk as if a marble is knocking around in the front axle area. Balljoints and tierods are fine. Cannot locate the issue

 

[pup5581]

Mines doing the same, in and out of a driveway, low speed clunk as if a marble is knocking around in the front axle area. Balljoints and tierods are fine. Cannot locate the issue

Does it do it all the time? Mine has only done it twice in the past 10 days or so and just on one drive. Do you have any whining noises while driving?

 

[CommandPresence]

Does it do it all the time? Mine has only done it twice in the past 10 days or so and just on one drive. Do you have any whining noises while driving?

Happens every bump. No whining unless my girlfriend is with me

 

[pup5581]

Mines doing the same, in and out of a driveway, low speed clunk as if a marble is knocking around in the front axle area. Balljoints and tierods are fine. Cannot locate the issue

I stopped at my dealer today as it was a day where it was happening..he heard it and immediately said..sway bar bushings. Brining it back in in 2 weeks for that to get fixed..look at my whine and get a complete 60K check up.

I am at 63K and this dealer is great. Doing all the work for free since I have been complaining about it for a while..just couldn't replicate for them until today. Just because of this dealer experience from the past and today..it will be where I buy my next Ford.

 

[CommandPresence]

I stopped at my dealer today as it was a day where it was happening..he heard it and immediately said..sway bar bushings. Brining it back in in 2 weeks for that to get fixed..look at my whine and get a complete 60K check up.


I am at 63K and this dealer is great. Doing all the work for free since I have been complaining about it for a while..just couldn't replicate for them until today. Just because of this dealer experience from the past and today..it will be where I buy my next Ford.

That's good to know! Please let us know how it turns out.

 

[pup5581]

That's good to know! Please let us know how it turns out.

So they replaced the right sway bar link/bushings on right side where the knocking was...maybe 4 weeks ago...and now the noise is back almost 24/7 over bumps since yesterday...so I guess a bad sway bar and or it's not that...ugh...

 

[CommandPresence]

Mine was the lower control arm bushings. Completely deteriorated.

 

[pup5581]

Mine was the lower control arm bushings. Completely deteriorated.

How many miles? And this completely fixed the issue? They found no issues in any part of the suspension and they really really looked through it

 

[Reimer]

Bad strut bearings? They are terrible and cheap design. I've already replaced three on our Explorer.

 

[reserved50]

DO NOT DISSASEMBLE THE FRONT STRUTS WITHOUT A SPRING COMPRESSOR. THAT SPRING WILL GO THRU YOUR ROOF AND YOU FIRST IF YOU'RE IN THE WAY, NOT KIDDING


if everything looks good replace the front upper strut bearings/mount (same item). They contain the isolator bushings which take up small sharp bumps and ruts before the shocks have time to react and will weaken early due to them being so soft. I had one removed and put in a press and the rubber was peeling away, so they were converted to urethane, haven tried them yet. One thing you may want to try if youre handy with a hydraulic jack is to place the front of the vehicle on jack stands (don't place the stands under the suspension) and remove the front tires, place the hydraulic jack under the front control arm under the ball joint if possible, jack the arm up a few inches and release the hydraulic jack quickly, if you hear the same thunk noise its the from the upper strut mount bottoming out.
When initially hitting a speed bump the top of the strut rod will push the upper section of the strut mount into the shock tower due to the shock being stiffer than the bushing, on rebound the bushing will bottom out also causing the double thunking noise, not saying this is it, but might be.

The other way to check them is to place a video recording device with a light under the hood with the rubber plug on the top of the front shock removed and drive over bumps, the noise should correlate with the top of the strut rod moving.

 

[reserved50]

top of mount, that cup is whats attached to the top of the strut rod and isolated from the body of the strut mount

bottom of mount, the cup hits the body of the mount on rebound, that's where the noise would be

the strut mount in a press, the theres a socket at the back pushing out and the other side is the cup that hits the shocks tower on compression when hitting a bump

what happens after you press the cup out and it goes flying, then air chisel out the cup housing to finish it off since I had nothing better to do, the rubber in
between was 30-50% deteriorated

 

[CommandPresence]

How many miles? And this completely fixed the issue? They found no issues in any part of the suspension and they really really looked through it

63k. It was that causing my noise.

 

[CommandPresence]

Rubber was smoked. The control arm was bouncing around.

 

[pup5581]

Rubber was smoked. The control arm was bouncing around.

View attachment 97580

Ya I am at 65K. See all my rubber...everything looks fine...no deterioration ect from my eyes or the dealer. But I guess something is still wrong. It did it yesterday (it was raining) and today it didn't....some days it does..others it doesn't.

Calling dealer tomorrow to bring it back in

 

[TwinOne]

This happened the other morning as well but today it did it again. Over bumps it will have this loose/knocking noise. I am also having an issue with a howling and oscellating noise at certain speeds that the Ford tech heard and it goes in Monday.

They are putting it on the lift Monday and driving it at that speed to listen to everything.

Knocking over bumps so it has to be something suspension related just wondering what

I had the same thing on my '16 Sport. It was just repaired. It was a cracked PTU, they replaced the entire module. Thank god for warranty work.

 

[Fentress24]

Mine was doing something similar and I told them it had to be the right front sub-frame mount that there is a TSB for. They said it was a bad transmission mount. The dealer replaced the transmission mount and it didn't fix the issue.

After the tranny mount didn't fix the issue the dealer said, "we just started going over the whole front suspension and subframe to make sure everything was tight." That is what fixed my thumping noise. Haven't had the noise for some time now. They don't know what they specifically tightened to fix the thumping noise, but it has definitely worked.

 

[Joel tech]

This happened the other morning as well but today it did it again. Over bumps it will have this loose/knocking noise. I am also having an issue with a howling and oscellating noise at certain speeds that the Ford tech heard and it goes in Monday.

They are putting it on the lift Monday and driving it at that speed to listen to everything.

Knocking over bumps so it has to be something suspension related just wondering what

I HAD THE SAME THING ON MY FORD EXPLORER I ENDED REPLACE BOTH LOWER CONTROL AND RIGHT SIDE BAR LINK.

 

[peterk9]

I HAD THE SAME THING ON MY FORD EXPLORER I ENDED REPLACE BOTH LOWER CONTROL AND RIGHT SIDE BAR LINK.

Welcome to the Forum Joel.
Please complete your registration by adding the 'Required' "Trim Level" (Base, XLT, etc.) of your Explorer to your profile so it shows in the margin. Thanks.

Peter