Untraceable front suspension noise

[Bobby Hill]

I know it’s near impossible to diagnose a noise in a vehicle via the internet, so I was just hoping I could get a few thoughts on this from some folks that have maybe experienced something similar. I’m putting this in the Sport Trac forum as it seems the most applicable, admin please move if you feel it belongs elsewhere.

I have a 2003 Sport 2wd. In the past 3 months I have replaced all ten body mount bushings, both upper ball joints, sway bar bushings and end links in the front end. Everything was rock solid and quiet for about a month and then suddenly on the front passenger side I’m now getting a “loose lumber” sounding rattle/reverberation as I go over bumps….bumps being normal road imperfections, man hole covers, rough roads, bridge seams, etc.

The noise is definitely coming only from the front passenger side, and only when the steering wheel is straight or I’m turning left and going over bumps. As soon as I turn the steering wheel to the right, it’s as if everything tightens up and the noise no longer happens. The noise just sounds like….looseness. It’s not a popping noise like a ball joint or end link would produce.

I’m stumped at this point. The only front suspension components that haven’t been replaced at this point are the lower ball joints and the tie rod ends, both of which seem perfectly fine to me. It doesn’t appear to be any brake components, and my wheel bearings are in good shape.

Any thoughts or leads would be very much appreciated. I have searched and searched and exhausted all of my ideas.

Thanks,

Brian.

 

[Rick]

Possibly control arm bushings?

 

[Bobby Hill]

That was one part that I have considered. I replaced the upper control arm bushings on the driver side when I did the ball joints, but as we know the passenger side is a 2 piece design on the control arm which does NOT replace the upper part of the arm which contains the bushings. It’s tough because there’s no way to know without replacing the part as to the naked eye it appears to be in decent shape. Thanks for the suggestion Rick.

The truck has 110k miles, I forgot to mention in my initial post.

 

[swshawaii]

Unusual at 110K, the lower ball joints are load bearing and prone to fail first.
Spray lube the passenger UCA bushings and road test for noise. Shocks maybe?

 

[Bobby Hill]

Thanks sws – I’ll try your suggestion on those bushings tonight. Now that you mention it – it was raining the other day and the noises seemed quieter so that’s an excellent suggestion. I should have thought of that sooner.

Shocks were replaced at 65k miles by previous owner…roughly 4 years ago. The top and bottom mounts look good and nothing *seems* wrong with the shock itself but that would be an easy/cheap thing to replace.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions so far.

 

[swshawaii]

Also check the brake caliper bolts. Lug nut tight 1/2" bolts.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192818

 

[Bobby Hill]

I was able to check everything over the weekend that has been discussed so far in this thread with no success. I even swapped the front shocks from one side to the other and threw in some new bushings I had laying around in hopes that it was one of the shocks coming loose but that wasn't the case either. At this point I guess it either has to be the lower ball joint, or lower control arm/bushings as there is nothing left that I can think of in the front suspension that I haven't replaced. This thing is driving me crazy - I can't stand squeaks/rattles in a vehicle.

Thanks again for all the thoughts. At this point I will just have to live with the clatter until I build up the ambition to spend yet another day working on my Explorer. Next stop will more than likely be lower ball joints in blind hope that they are the source.

 

[Bobby Hill]

I have given up - it's going into Ford tomorrow to see if they can figure it out. With the money I've spent on this thing over the past 8 months I should have just bought a new car. Not sure if anybody is following along with this anymore, but I'll post what (if anything) Ford can turn up. The noise continues to get worse and it's unbearable at this point, so they should hopefully be able to find something that I'm not capable of finding myself.


Brian.

 

[Newfy Trac]

I have given up - it's going into Ford tomorrow to see if they can figure it out. With the money I've spent on this thing over the past 8 months I should have just bought a new car. Not sure if anybody is following along with this anymore, but I'll post what (if anything) Ford can turn up. The noise continues to get worse and it's unbearable at this point, so they should hopefully be able to find something that I'm not capable of finding myself.


Brian.

I've been following along, hope it works out for you. Everything I thought of you've already checked. I did have a rattle on bumps, ended up going away when I went to the longer torsion bolts and lifted the front end. I'm guessing the torsion key was hitting the head of the bolt, figured the torsion bars had worn and the bolts lost tension.

Post up your results with Ford.

 

[swshawaii]

I have given up - it's going into Ford tomorrow to see if they can figure it out. With the money I've spent on this thing over the past 8 months I should have just bought a new car. Not sure if anybody is following along with this anymore, but I'll post what (if anything) Ford can turn up. The noise continues to get worse and it's unbearable at this point, so they should hopefully be able to find something that I'm not capable of finding myself.
Brian.

I'm STILL betting on lower ball joints. Did you check the UCA camber bolts for tightness?
I chased a loud clunk and found a nut loosened 1/8". Torqued to 100 ft/lb and silenced.

As you probably know, lift the tires by the LCA and unload the wheels to inspect everything.

 

[Bobby Hill]

I'm STILL betting on lower ball joints. Did you check the UCA camber bolts for tightness?
I chased a loud clunk and found a nut loosened 1/8". Torqued to 100 ft/lb and silenced.

As you probably know, lift the tires by the LCA and unload the wheels to inspect everything.

My ultimate guess at this point would be lower ball joints as well. We'll see what Ford has to say. I actually had it apart one more time yesterday and double checked the torque on all the control arms and there is no issue there. Newfy - I'll be sure to keep the thread updated, hopefully through a quick resolution!

One more point that I forgot to add and should have - this all started about a week after I had the new tires put on and an alignment performed exactly one month ago. I'm taking it back to the same Ford dealership that did the alignment in case it's somehow related to that. I talked to the service manager yesterday and he read through all the notes in their system and no problems whatsoever were indicated at that time. That's not to say that something hasn't let loose since then. I probably should have taken it back sooner.

 

[Bobby Hill]

Ford spent almost two hours on this today and provided no answers. I have no clue what to do at this point but to say that I'm frustrated is an understatement. I've reached my patience threshhold with this vehicle and have decided that I'm going to sell it but that's going to be no easy task with this noise hammering out of the wheelwell!

 

[Bobby Hill]

Well I finally have some positive results to post. I tracked it down and fixed the problem last night, however I did a few different things at once and I'm not sure which of them was the major contributing factor to getting rid of the rattle.

I started by once again checking the wheel bearing on that side to make sure it was set properly. There was a small amount of play so I tightened it up a bit but the problem persisted.

I put the truck back up on ramps and took my treble light and a flashlight and literally just layed underneath to see what I could see. There is a plastic brake line that runs from the passenger side caliper, up over the frame, and then back down underneath the engine and is "pinned" against the back of the frame crossmember that runs east/west beneath the engine (I apologize for my lack of technical terms)...well, I pushed on that and the entire thing was loose and made a terrible racket. So I zip tied the line to the frame and padded it in a couple other spots where it makes contact with other parts of the truck. While I was messing around under there, I also stumbled upon a spare key that the previous owner had hidden inside that frame crossmember, the magnet on the key holder was long dead and it was loosely rattling around inside the frame. I'm sure this was not a contributor to the rattling but I thought it was kind of funny/ironic regardless.

While I was under the truck, I also noticed that it appeared the front passenger side body mount was not completely tight. I put a wrench on it from the top and was able to get a good three to four full turns on that bolt which snugged it up nice and tight. I did the same for the driver side but could only get 1/2 turn or so.

Anyways, I'm not sure whether it was the body mount, the brake line, or a combination of the two....but the noise is completely GONE. While part of me thinks it was that brake line, I also don't believe that it had the capability to make a noise as severe as what I was hearing. At this point, I don't care.

My takeaway from this is to learn to be a little more patient and not give up when the problem isn't caused by one of the usual suspects. Keep looking, rule things out, and then look some more.

Thanks again everybody for taking the time to give me your thoughts and suggestions. Half the battle is knowing where to start.

 

[01STrunner]

Glad everything worked out!

 

[swshawaii]

My takeaway from this is to learn to be a little more patient and not give up when the problem isn't caused by one of the usual suspects. Keep looking, rule things out, and then look some more.

Perseverance pays off once again. Well done!