Hoping someone can shed some light on this situation. My 05 SXT seems to have some kind of clunking/vibration/loose feel on the drivers side front end when going over bumps or uneven surfaces. I went underneath to check on everything and from what I can see it looks good, but I'm no mechanic. One thing I noticed is the sway bar end links do not have a nut on the top of the bolt....is this normal? I can just crank the bolt and they just spin. It's weird, the majority of the time the noise seems to come from the driver side, sometimes it is heard and felt in the center of the front end.

I really can't afford to just start throwing parts at this thing....my girlfriend needs it everyday to drive to college and is scared that the wheel is going to fall off or she is going to lose control.

 

If there is something going on when the car is going over bumps and such, it's going to be either lower control arm bushings or ball joints. The tie rod ends usually go bad at about the same time. If a tie rod end snaps/breaks, it can be a bit bad if you are driving. If you can work on a car yourself, you'll save a bunch of money there alone.

 

Thanks for the info. I jacked up the car and tried to wiggle the tire back and forth. It is definitely the driver side tie rod end. You can hear it clunk and see it moving. The grease is all over the place too. It's going in the shop tomorrow. Do you think it needs both replaced? Checked the passenger side and it's fine....actually could hear the drivers side clunk when checking. Should the car get an alignment as well?

I've worked on cars before but never really messed with any suspension items.

 

It won't hurt to replace the other, but "if it isn't broken, don't fix it." The only reason I'd say replace it too is for longevity sake, since the car will need an alignment when the tie rod ends are replaced. Tie rods are actually one of the things used to align a car. Same with the lower control arm bushings and ball joints. I've learned these lessons the hard way, lol. If either of those goes, best replace the other parts too while the control arm is off. You'll save yourself time, trouble and money later.

My $0.02 on all of that, having re-done just about every suspension component (the struts are the only stock part left, but those are pretty easy anyways) and every bushing.