Just wondering here has anyone had the same or a similar problem. My truck is a 2 wheel drive, 5 speed manual. I never do any towing, have never been off-road. My truck has had a weird problem for the last year or so, where it will have a fairly loud clunk or pop type noise from the front end. This happens when I back out of a parking space or my driveway, and it happens when I have the steering wheel cranked all the way to one side or the other, or almost all the way to one side or the other, depending on which direction I am turning while backing out. The noise happens only one time, it happens when I turn the wheel and give it gas, soon as the truck begins to move a few feet I hear the thud/clunk noise. I should add that the noise is only heard and perceived to be coming from the front end, it is not the steering shaft pop noise/feeling that a lot of Dodges have had.

The noise used to only happen now and then, maybe a few times a week and only in reverse. Now it is getting more frequent and will also make the same noise when I am traveling straight, like it will sometimes pop when I am coasting up to a stop sign or red light. My brake pads, calipers, shocks and stabilizer bar links are all in good shape, all have been replaced in the last 2 to 2 1/2 years. I replaced all 4 ball joints 2 years and less than 15,000 miles ago, I have TRW lowers and Duralast uppers. If I can believe what I read online, TRW makes the Duralast brand for Autozone.

I had the original outer tie rod ends replaced back in 2007, at about 70,000 miles. Truck now has 151,600 miles on it. I had the tie rods done when I took the truck in for an alignment. The shop used Moog parts, I saw the boxes when the parts store delivered them to the shop. I replaced my inner tie rods about 2 years ago I guess. I am thinking this pop noise has to be the outer tie rods. I have not been able to get the truck off the ground to check it out yet. I did drive it today and had the pop noise several times during a 4 mile round trip.

I need to get this fixed, I worry about it being a safety issue. Has any one else had a pop noise from tie rods being worn out? My truck drives straight and has no other noises, no play in the steering, no pulling to the left or right. Everything is fine except for this front end pop-thunk noise. I don't want to just throw parts at it if I can help it.

Thanks for any info.

 

I'd check the ball joints - they are a weak link in the front end and one of the first things to go. I had to replace mine at about 30K.

 

Well 01SilverCC

Seeing as you were the one that got me started with your famous thread on the ball joint job.

I’m thinking how’s your bushings this just may be the problem? Doing my bushings this week one thing I just found out is all my bushing bolts/nuts were just finger tight testing them the other day I guess after 14 years they loosened up they should all be at 130 lb. torque just a little pulling and they came loose kind of freaky to think they were so loose.

Beyond that I could not say odd clunks are so hard to say what they are.

One thing I do suggest is check the Ball joint bolts they may have come loose on you.

 

I have no clunking, clanking, rattling or noises during turns that would be indicative of control arm bushing problems. I have looked at the control arm bushings and other than being a bit dirty they appear to be OK.

My ball joints are all aftermarket, TRW lowers, Duralast uppers. Uppers don't take near the amount of abuse as lowers do. They have maybe 15,000 miles on them, I don't see how they could be bad this soon. The ball joints are all bolted in very tightly with #8 grade bolts, nuts and fender washers, nothing is loose. The last time I checked, and it was not that long ago there was no play or movement at all in the tires when I grabbed the tire at 12 and 6:00 and shook it in and out. I can not remember whether I did the 9 and 3:00 test for tie rods.

Those Moog tie rods may be great parts and all that but even great parts eventually wear out. Mine have over 80,000 miles on them now. That is one reason I suspect the tie rods are causing this clunk. That and the fact that I have no whine, hiss or other noises/problems that would indicate the steering rack is bad. The tie rods are the only other part that moves when I crank the wheels to back out of the driveway. Well the steering shaft moves too but there is no problem I can find with it. I did spray its u-joints down with silicone about 10 days ago though. I am going to jack up the front end tomorrow after work and see whether there is any play in the tire/wheel or visible problems with the tie rods and everything else too.

Thanks for the help.

Jimmy

 

I'm ith DAKAZ on the LCA/UCA.

 

One thing I found out about the ball joint nuts and bolts is you need metric grade 12.9 on the lowers and metric grade 10.9 on the top and washers are not a good idea they crush down with time because they are not as hard as the high grade bolts plus the washers allow movement they act like a bushing/bearing.

Metric grade 12.9 is a much stronger bolt and the 10.9 is the same as a grade 8 American bolt.

I have been talking to some bolt suppliers on this subject the last week and you can’t find any metric grade 12.9 bolts in America anywhere you can only have them made for you in England at $10 each but just buying a new Ball joint set with bolts is cheaper.

 

Check all bolts and nuts up front. Had a issue like this turn out to be bolts holding the rack in were loose

 

Thanks everybody for all your help on this. I fixed the problem and it only cost me $12.00. I have to say thanks to 98DakAZ. I had no idea the ball joint bolts could loosen up with the use of flat washers. Unfortunately the washers have to stay because the holes in my control arms are almost too large for the heads of the bolts on my ball joints. But I took his advice and checked the ball joint bolts and nearly all of them were a bit loose, upper and lower, left and right. I only had to tighten most of them less than a full turn of the wrench, a few took nearly a full turn but I got them all as tight as possible. I will keep a close eye on those bolts from now on, check them periodically and maybe go back and use some nylon locking nuts instead of the regular hex nuts that came with the ball joints. Incidentally, the bolts are metric grade 10, it says 10.9 on top of each one, not Grade 8 like I thought they were. Thanks DakAZ for the info.

I gotta give credit to Moog..I checked the tie rod ends, rocked the wheels at 9 and 3:00, the left front had just a slight bit of play in it but it was not from the tie rods. Those Moog tie rods have over 80,000 miles on them and are still tighter than two coats of paint. There was not even the slightest bit of slop or looseness in the tie rod ends. I checked the bolts holding the rack in, they were plenty tight, as were the control arm bolts. The control arm bushings may be a bit worn but I am leaving them alone. The lower fronts were the only ones that looked possibly abnormal, like they were stretched just the slightest amount where the bolt heads run through on the front side of the LCA's. They all had a bit of cracking, which is nothing abnormal for a 12 year old truck.

The main problem I found was the left front stabilizer bar link had a split boot on the stud end. There was no grease left in it at all and some of it had slung up on the fender liner. This had to be the reason why I have noticed the clunk noise being a lot worse in the last 10 days or so. Luckily for me I keep all the receipts for the parts I buy for my truck. I bought that link back in January 2010 when I did my lower ball joints. I remember I had to buy a new one because I somehow stripped the threads on the stud end when I removed the link while I doing the ball joint on that side. I believe the link was a TRW, and I got it at Advance, and it had a lifetime warranty. I called Advance and they confirmed they could warranty it for a split boot, and they let me pay the difference between the TRW link and the Moog link, which was only $12.00. Many thanks to Advance for being cool with the warranty exchange. They don't even sell the TRW links any more. They can still special order the TRW links but in the store they only have the good quality Moog link or the who knows what kind of quality it might be Driveworks, which are cheap Chinese-made parts. No thanks.

I installed the new stabilizer bar link, it is greaseable too, I greased all of the ball joints, put it all back together and went for a test drive. I purposely went driving to places where I remember the clunk noise was present, like a stop sign at the bottom of a hill near my house. The clunk would always happen when I stopped at that stop sign. I turned in and out of my driveway several times, same as I always did before when the noise was present. There was no more of the clunk noise on any part of the test drive. It used to always clunk every time I backed out of my driveway or if I turned in a tight circle. I have none of that now, and the handling feels just a bit tighter too.

I am glad this was an easy and cheap fix. I will keep an eye and ear out for control arm problems and keep my ball joint nuts and bolts tightened from here on out. I guess if it took 2 1/2 years for the bolts to get loose enough to help cause the clunk noise, that is not too bad. I believe it was a combination of the sorta loose ball joint bolts and the bad stabilizer bar link that was the cause of the problem.

Thanks everybody for your help on this.

Jimmy

 

Just remember with critical bolts like these reusing them or re-tightening them weakens the strength of the nut and bolt. They are like head bolts you always replace them never reuse them.

Unfortunately the larger bottom bolts are impossible to get/find only ones I found were socket head Cap Screw bolts not recommended the head is too small. Only choice is getting a new Ball joint just for the special bolts and nuts.

A socket head Cap screw bolt



Every time a bolt is used it gets weaker and weaker same with the nuts.

These places have the smaller top bolts and locking nuts you need in the metric grade 10.9

http://www.nutsandbolts.com/

https://www.belmetric.com/

 

more info on the bolts its a link

The link