just have to live with front end noise I guess

[keith88lx]

That sucks. I just retightened all the nuts on the sway bar end links and the sway bar mounts and my clunk is gone.

 

[rojizostang]

i wonder if it's in the rack itself?

 

[rojizostang]

i spent hours this afternoon under the car, tightening, prying, banging and lubricating everything i can find.

the weird thing is that it only makes the noise when sitting still, turning the steering wheel back and forth....with the motor running. it doesn't make any noise at all turning the wheels back and forth with the motor stopped.

could it possibly be power steering pump related?

 

[JesseW.]

i spent hours this afternoon under the car, tightening, prying, banging and lubricating everything i can find.

the weird thing is that it only makes the noise when sitting still, turning the steering wheel back and forth....with the motor running. it doesn't make any noise at all turning the wheels back and forth with the motor stopped.

could it possibly be power steering pump related?

steering shaft hitting header..????

 

[rojizostang]

steering shaft hitting header..????

definitely not, plenty of clearance there. thanks for the idea though.

 

[bigmd]

was under car today.everything seems tight.looking at the rotors i noticed the wheelstuds have about 1/4" of movement side to side.the sound is similar to what ive been hearing.does anyone think thiscould be the studs banging around in the rotor.i did the Brembo upgrade but bought Napa rotors.the hols in rotor look like they are not perfectly round.

 

[bigmd]

ok problem solved.swaybar removed and noise gone.swaybar staying off.car drives fine.

 

[Kevinmach1]

ok problem solved.swaybar removed and noise gone.swaybar staying off.car drives fine.

I am about ready to do the same thing... How's it handle????

 

[Kevinmach1]

i spent hours this afternoon under the car, tightening, prying, banging and lubricating everything i can find.

the weird thing is that it only makes the noise when sitting still, turning the steering wheel back and forth....with the motor running. it doesn't make any noise at all turning the wheels back and forth with the motor stopped.

could it possibly be power steering pump related?

I have been down the same road.... so frustrating.

 

[RRRoamer]

what do you guys think of Fords bolts being one time use only as they are labeled?Maximum Motorsports sells strut to spindle bolts with a finer thread.

There is almost always a damn good reason Ford (or any manufacturer) will label a bolt as one use only. Usually, it is because the torque specs on the bolt are pushing it closer to (or past like head bolts) the linear to plastic deformation transition region. There are good reasons to operate a bolt in this region (more consistent clamping load on a cold engine for example), but there is one bitch in the works: a yielded bolt will NOT return to it's original length when the load is removed.

And the problem is if you reuse it and then torque it down EXACTLY the same as before, the bloody bolt is STILL yields MORE than it did originally. Do this a few (or possibly a lot) times and the bolt will break. And probably when you REALLY don't want it breaking. So, to get the good benefits of operating a bolt in this transition region, you have to deal with the fact that you can't keep reusing them or you will break them.

Knowing this, I DID reuse the strut mount bolts when installed my springs. Why? Well, while I DO know they will fail if I keep reusing them, I also know that the chance of them failing with a single reuse is VERY slim. Plus, I ONLY reused them once. The next time they come off, they will get replaced. Had this been a head bolt, then no, they would NOT have been reused, not even a single time.

Oh, and I am another one that had the dreaded clunking noise. In my case, it started after I did the spring swap. EVENTUALLY I was able to track it down and fix it for good. The cause: a loose sway bar strut link! They are a BITCH to get torqued properly as, at least in my case, the one bolt kept wanting to rotate as I tried to torque it down.

 

[Powered by Ford]

There is almost always a damn good reason Ford (or any manufacturer) will label a bolt as one use only. Usually, it is because the torque specs on the bolt are pushing it closer to (or past like head bolts) the linear to plastic deformation transition region. There are good reasons to operate a bolt in this region (more consistent clamping load on a cold engine for example), but there is one bitch in the works: a yielded bolt will NOT return to it's original length when the load is removed.

And the problem is if you reuse it and then torque it down EXACTLY the same as before, the bloody bolt is STILL yields MORE than it did originally. Do this a few (or possibly a lot) times and the bolt will break. And probably when you REALLY don't want it breaking. So, to get the good benefits of operating a bolt in this transition region, you have to deal with the fact that you can't keep reusing them or you will break them.

Knowing this, I DID reuse the strut mount bolts when installed my springs. Why? Well, while I DO know they will fail if I keep reusing them, I also know that the chance of them failing with a single reuse is VERY slim. Plus, I ONLY reused them once. The next time they come off, they will get replaced. Had this been a head bolt, then no, they would NOT have been reused, not even a single time.

Oh, and I am another one that had the dreaded clunking noise. In my case, it started after I did the spring swap. EVENTUALLY I was able to track it down and fix it for good. The cause: a loose sway bar strut link! They are a BITCH to get torqued properly as, at least in my case, the one bolt kept wanting to rotate as I tried to torque it down.

RRRoamer is correct on the one time use and his yielding principle is correct for all fastened joints, however these nuts are a special type. The nuts that are used on the endlinks are "thread deforming" nuts. These are a ONE time use because the threads deform to "lock" the nut in place. Yes they can be removed, however, once you remove the nut it looses its thread deforming features and is much more prone to backing off due to vibration and road forces.

 

[bigmd]

ok guys just another update .after i removed the bar everything was good for a few weeks but then day by day clunking noise came back and now worse.even if i hit brakes hard i would hear it.it sounded for sure like the strut bolts.so i went ahead and ordered the new bolts from Ford and Eibach camber bolts since i lowered the car.so today i went to my buddys house to install bolts and put tubular rad support on.as we were buttoning up the install i noticed my lca bolt was not tight.it actually had backed almost all the way out.for sure this was my problem.we snugged it up and checked the other side sure enough it need about 10 turns.these were the new GT 500 arms i had put in a few months ago.so i will keep an eye on them and loctite if i have to.car is super quiet now and feels tight for once.

 

[rojizostang]

lac bolt? do you mean lca bolt?

 

[bigmd]

yea ooppps.thats what i meant.lower control arm bolt was very loose on both sides.

 

[Blackjack14]

it was the front sway bar on my 07 roush changed the u bolt brackets and it solved the problem

 

[RRRoamer]

RRRoamer is correct on the one time use and his yielding principle is correct for all fastened joints, however these nuts are a special type. The nuts that are used on the endlinks are "thread deforming" nuts. These are a ONE time use because the threads deform to "lock" the nut in place. Yes they can be removed, however, once you remove the nut it looses its thread deforming features and is much more prone to backing off due to vibration and road forces.

Thanks for the correction!

 

[Powered by Ford]

Thanks for the correction!

No problem! You were almost a 100% correct. Most people don't really know about thread deforming nuts. I didn't until I started working as a suspension components engineer.

 

[Wicked One]

I have a thunk in the front end also. After checking everything it turned out to be the drivers side ball joint. Good reason to upgrade to the x5.

sent from my Damn phone

 

[Pike2244]

I had the same clunk but yesterday a loud pop happened... Took a look under today and what do you know; drivers side sway bar completely disconnected from end link and the passenger side is loose. Go figure.

Can I bolt it back up while its on the ground or do I have to jack it up?

 

[bigmd]

Well I just has all bolts loctited and retightened.so after I replaced lcas struts upper strut mounts removed sway bar there is still. Noise but I think it has a lot to do wit my 19" rims.the ride sucks now