I've developed a slight clunking in the left front. The van has almost 50,000 miles, new struts & shocks one year ago, new tie rod ends (2nd time) yesterday. I'm thinking it must be the ball joints, but jacking up the van, removing the front wheel and prying with a decent size screwdriver did not show much movement. Maybe I need a big crow bar to put more force on the assembly to see movement. Every thing else seems OK. Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

Most likely going to be the sway bar links and/or the sway bar bushings.

 

Thanks for the reply. I checked everything again this morning. Sway bar bushing and links all look OK. It does not take much to cause the clunk or knock. Driving slowly up a curb or hitting a small dip while turning will cause it. I would think it would take more than that if it was a sway bar bushing. Still leads me to think it's a ball joint but I see no evidence. Hmmm.

 

Had to replace the sway bar links and bushings in mine. Hard Metallic thud on small bumps but intermittent. We had it on the lift, etc. Could not duplicate unless on the road. Once replaced problem solved.

 

I decided to go ahead and change the sway bar links and bushings. Spent about $60 total at auto zone and 5 miserable hours on my knees and back in a hot garage. No difference. Clunk is still there. It has to be either a ball joint or something loose in the strut. The struts were changed a year ago using the Monroe complete strut unit. It would not surprise me if something was already loose in there. I think the Monroe's are junk.

 

No, your sway bar bushings are the cause, not a ball joint. Swaybar bushings wear out every 50k-75K mi while ball joints will last 250K mi. Believe me, a visual check won't find it.


It takes NOTHING for a worn swaybar bushing to clunk. On level surface a tiny 1/2" bumps will cause clunks. They will clunk worse on minor road surface irregularities than big bumps!! Links can make similar noise but they generally last longer and are easy to check for play on gen 4.


Ball joints crack snap and pop when steering at slow speeds or stationary and don't clunk much in straight line on bumps. An inner tie rod would more likely do that. Different symptom.

 

I DID change the sway bar bushings. Clunk is still there. I hear it mostly when turning, especially going slow turning into my driveway and going up the curb. Never hear it hitting a bump straight on. Always the left front. It takes very little impact to make it happen and it is not real loud. Inner tie rod end sounds possible. I checked it before and did not get any play with the left wheel in the air and trying to move back and forth, or just moving the steering wheel left/right with the engine off. I cannot duplicate the noise without driving it. I will check it out some more. Thanks for replies.

 

check the cv joints

 

When did you change the bushings? Within the last 50K mi??

If you expect the suspension to feel "tight" with no clunks, a typical GC will typically go thru 4-5 sets of swaybar bushings, 3-4 sets of swaybar end links and 2 sets of inner and outer tie rods in 200K miles. The chrysler Gen 3 and 4 ball joints generally last the life of the vehicle at 250k++mi, but results indeed vary, as they say.

Play can be checked in all these parts, but it's important to understand that jacking the vehicle up with suspension drooping can reduce or even hide the play. I would jack under the control arms near the ball joint when checking for play in these parts. Don't jack on the chassis. This way the suspension is loaded properly with normal ride height geometry instead of drooping in an abnormal position. This is critical for checking inner or outer tie rods or ball joints.

 

I am having a similar problem. After changing the drivers side strut and stabilizer link I noticed the clunking noise. I took it to the garage and they claimed the nut on the stabilizer link just needed to be tightened, but this didn't solve the problem, still clunking. I removed the strut to check that the nut on top was tight, turns out it was loose. Tightened it about 4 turns and put it back in and reattached the stabilizer link. Thought this solved the problem, no clunking for about a week! Then it came back, so I replaced the stabilizer link with a "better version", still clunking. The sway bar bushings are a little worn, but not to the extent that would cause this much noise (both sides equally worn, noise only one side), tie rod is new and tight, ball joint is tight. I am curious to know what you might find.