the front passenger side of my truck has always seemed to click when im driving down the road but today it has turned into a loud clunk when moving through the parking lot. i originally thought it was something in my brakes because the noise quieted if i hit the brakes. when i bought it i was told the passenger side wheel bearing was on its way out, could this be it? it still ticks when driving normal speeds with the window down, but like it said now it clunks when at parkinglot speeds. any thoughts? daily driver and im not paying a shop

 

Have a jack at home? Put it under the control arm as close to the wheel as possible, lift it until it's an inch or so off the ground.

Shake it with a good bit of force with your hands at 12 & 6. If you have play there, your wheel bearing is wiped.

 

will that throw it out of alignment? i just had one done. would/should they have noticed if it was bad before they did my alignment? cause they had no problem telling me they were gonna charge me 180 to change a ball joint...

 

I have a co-worker that's a lazy **** and wouldn't do anymore than the bare minimum to save his life, never checks a front end before he does alignments.

No, wiggling the front end won't change alignment, if it does? You have far more serious problems than a wheel bearing or ball joint... LOL.

They SHOULD have noticed before they did the alignment, but do what I said in the previous post before jumping to conclusions. If you're lifting it like that, you can check ball joints at the same time. 3-4ft bar/pipe under the tire and pry up with a fair bit of force, if you hear clicking/feel movement- That's your lower ball joint. Put your hands on the top inside and outside of the tire and shake it back and forth, if you hear clicking/feel movement- That's your upper ball joint gone.

 

is it a 4x4?? CV shaft?? just crawl under it and grab it and shake it at the joint, you'll know right away if bad, should be tight

 

First and cheapest thing is to check your lug nuts. Loose lugs will give you a creak/tick for a while then a mean clunk the looser they get, that will go away under acceleration or braking.