Ah, the mysteries. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that when I turn slowly and pull out of a driveway that's sloped, the truck will rock side to side, but when it does there's a noticeable clunk as it sways back and forth. I had it in at a shop (not a dealer, because I am sick of dealing with them). The inspected and found and bad lower ball joint and inner tie rod. Replaced both (btw saved $100+ buying the Moogs myself and letting them put them in) but it still makes the clunk when it sways. They took it back in today, had four mechanics look at it, jumped on it, scoured the entire suspension and absolutely cannot find anything. They checked everything I noted from previous forms about the same sort of symptom. Bushings, front CV's, steering, linkages, struts, axles,everything has been inspected by more than one mechanic and there's not a bad part in it. The manager even said, "The bad news is, none of us can find anything at all wrong with the truck." So in a way, it's a comfort to know that nothings wrong, but do I just live with this annoyance or does anybody else have anything to suggest? Hopefully it will just do away as quickly and suddenly as it showed up.


2003 Dakota SLT
4x4
40,000 miles
4.7 V8

 

It could be many things. Most likely, it is the upper ball joint. However, if they could not find a problem, it could be something odd, like a loose battery. Make sure large items in your engine bay, like a battery, are properly secured. The sound a loose battery makes when it slams from side to side can commonly be mistaken for suspension problems.

 

body mount

 

x2 I'd crawl underneath and check all the body mount bolts. good luck

 

Kind of tough since its been looked at by so many people. What catches my eye is the rocking side to side to go along with the associated clunk. Things I would think to look at would be shocks or sway bar. If enough motion is going on, the bump stops could be hitting and resonating the clunk sound. Also possibly torsion bars too loose. Again allowing the bump stops to hit.

But since this has all been looked at and they jumped up an down, go with the other suggestions and look at body mounts or loose components like the battery. Post back if you find anything.

 

Well, guys, nothing new really. Here's the story about my clunk. Took it to one shop, they said possibly a shock. Took it to another shop, one lower ball joint,one inner tie rod, 5 big mechanics jumping up and down . . . the clunk is still there. I lived with it for the last few months, when it seemed to be getting more frequent last week, I took it to another (different from the first two) shop, this one a front end specialty shop. He look the whole thing over. Bushings, rods, joints, body mounts, shock mounts, absolutely everything you can think of. He was showing everything to me while doing this. There's nothing loose or worn out. He did tighten a couple of bolts, but the clunk is still there. So he assured me nothing is going to fall off and everything is safe. Maybe the noise will go away as suddenly as it showed up.

Thanks for all your advice.

 

mine does it too, it's a design flaw. Dodge wont do anything about it, but they've addressed the situation before.

 

my guess would be upper ball joints, they seem to do this alot, you can check if its the upper by putting your truck on a lift with your front tires free, put one hand on the top of the tire and the other on the bottom, and try to shake it.. if there is ANY movement check the upper ball joints..

if they are riveted in then you have a recall on your truck and you need to take it in, if they are bolted in then they have been fixed before.

It was 2000-2003 for the 4x4s right? [&:]

 

You have a bolt that has loosened in your upper A-frame... if you'll pop the hood,,,have spmeone back the truckk you'll see it pop back and forth,,possible see a shiny spot where it'd been doing it back and forth. have it tightened than align front end.

 

After I pop the hood, where would be be looking for this bolt?