single pop when braking quickly - ?

[coos]

Any ideas on popping noise from front end when braking? It's a single sharp (sometimes loud) pop. It doesn't happen when turning. Its metallic sounding.

It seems to be from the middle, or maybe passenger side. It only happens when braking moderately, and only happens once. It doesn't happen all the time. Truck has 92k on it. Sometimes can also hear it when reversing into my garage and going over the small transition from driveway to garage.

I haven't got it in the air yet, but I am also not good at diagnosing bad ball joints (I suck at it).

Are ball joints common to replace on this truck? Any how tos?

 

[Rcflyer330]

I was having a popping sound like a spring releasing or brake pad shifting forward in the caliper definitely metallic sounding. it only happened when moving forward with light to moderate pressure on the brakes. In my case it would sometimes do it once or it would make the noise on every stop.

My fix so far was to take off the front calipers to see if I could see anything that looked like the pad may be shifting forward in the caliper and I did not find anything but I did find the bottom slide pin on the right front caliper was harder to move than the top one so I pulled it out cleaned off the old lube which was rusty from water getting there lubed it up and reinstalled. I also put some lube on the parts where the pads touch the caliper and so far ( knock on wood) I have not heard the sound again it's only been a few days but time will tell if it comes back. This is on a 2010 ford explorer v6.

Try checking the slide pins to see if they move freely. Maybe you have a sticking caliper slide pin.

 

[Tech By Trade]

Yes, the ball joints are pretty common. Do a search for a guide, there are a few on here. You have to change out the whole upper arm but you can press out the joint in the lower. on the front end anyway. its a pretty quick job if you don't have to fight to get the hub assembly off.