Popping noise from front end?

[Venustoise42]

I was driving home from work the other night, and decided to hit the McDonald's drive thru before I got home. I should know better than to go there, that's where my old 99 Nissan Pathfinder got totaled.

When I rounded the corner, I heard a loud "pop" noise come from what I thougt at the time was the semi truck unloading next door, but was actually from my explorer. My initial suspicion is that it's a ball joint or something in the drivers front wheel, but I'm not sure. My dad is going in for surgery on the 14th, so I was planning on taking the explorer in to a shop for service during that time because of the rear end being all funky.

Has anyone else had any similar issues?
What did you do to fix it?
Is it possible to wait until the 14th to take it in? Or should I deal with it now?
Thanks in advance

 

[D Hook]

Might be just a swaybar link. (I think that's what it's called.) Had that happen when pulling into my driveway one day. Easy,cheap fix. Take a quick look under the front and you might see it hanging down.

Nothing to deal with right now but check to be sure that it wasn't something more. I had my mechanic fix it the next time I got the oil changed.