Front control arm bushings

FASTANG · Jun 20, 2009

I have a clunking noise in the front end, mainly on the passenger side, and everything I can physically see
looks fine after removing the wheels and heavily inspecting three different times. After lengthy searching
through the archives here, I have narrowed it down to a worn hub, or the front control arm bushings
are shot. Is there any way to check the bushings w/o having to remove the spring and take the arm off?

Thanks,

SRT Handz · Jun 20, 2009

grab the A-Arm and physically move it to see if there is play.

vermilion · Jun 21, 2009

the knuckles on the tie rods have a tendacy to make noises when the boots are town exposing the joints also.

FASTANG · Jul 6, 2009

After looking into this again, I noticed that it only makes the noise when the suspension
is not loaded (not having a passenger in the car). The coil spring and sway bar are not
broken, all bolts and nuts are tight, the control arm bushing visually look OK with them
not being removed, and I greased the ball joints, but the problem is still there.
Also, the shock has no oil leak on it to visually show it's the problem.

Any other things for me to check out?

ReplicaR · Jul 6, 2009

The way you check for bad control arm bushings is having someone stand outside, while you creep past them, and apply the brakes firmly several times. If the wheel moves around a lot, chances are you will have to do the control arm bushings, or buy new control arms.

FASTANG · Jul 6, 2009

ReplicaR said:
The way you check for bad control arm bushings is having someone stand outside, while you creep past them, and apply the brakes firmly several times. If the wheel moves around a lot, chances are you will have to do the control arm bushings, or buy new control arms.

All that I can say to this so far is, the control arm is tight when I try to move it and it does not happen when the brake is being applied. I'll look into it whwen I have free time and report back. Anyone else?