Thread: sickening klunk
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Old 04-13-2004, 01:27 AM
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UberRoo UberRoo is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Puget Sound, Washington
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The lower ball joint is a good guess. There are a handful of joints and bushings down there that will cause problems like that. Try the lug nuts, tire pressure, and tie rod jam nut.

I'd suggest you jack up the front of your car until the wheels are off the ground as SVXer95 suggests. It may not be necessary to remove the wheels, but try that if you can't determine anything with them on. Listen carefully for a clunking noise of any type. Many shops like Les Schwab or Midas will do this for you for free in the hopes that they'll get to fix it too.

Also, with the car on the ground, you can set the parking brake (don't use the brake pedal) and shift from reverse to drive to reverse to drive... With the rear wheels locked by the parking brake, the front wheels will try to move. If there's a loose part, they will move. By yourself, you can listen for a clunk, which probably indicates a faulty ball joint. With an assistant, one of you can stand outside the car and observe the front wheels while shifting back and forth. You may also drive around slowly with someone walking beside the car watching carefully for anything unusual.
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