Greetings all. I am new to this forum and I figured this would be a great place to start. I just bought a Dodge Stratus ES 2001 in excellent condition. Had it close to a month now and I can hear a random knock noise going over small bumps either straight, or turning. It seems to be coming from the front driver side. I have looked at the balljoints and they look fine however I dont know.

I dont feel it in the steering wheel but seems as if I can feel it while my foot is on the accelrator, but very faint. Its not a loud knock, but I can hear it with everything off like the blower and windows up and such. I'm not really fimiliar with front end noises, but looking stuff up it seems as if it is the sway bar. Any ideas what it could be? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanx for taking the time to look at this. Have a great day.

Nick.

 

welcome, could be ball joints, strut bushings etc. is it a clunking/pop type sound, if so start car let car idle in park turn steering wheel quickly 90 degrees left then right does it make noise then?

 

Thanx Bills for your reply. I will have to do that with the steering wheel. I was really looking at all the suspension yesterday and it looks as if the boot on the upper balljoint on the drivers side has split open and looks a bit dry. I believe I have to get those replaced I did jack the car up and let it down and then noticed that move and it made a noise similar to what it does while driving. The sound is like a knock/pop noise. Its very random when it does it. Usually does not do it on straight roads though.

 

If rubber boot is split most likely that is your problem contaminants get in causing it to wear faster, also on 01-05' d they had a popping noise that came from firewall not safety related just annoying ,

 

I thought it might be. I however cant get it to reproduce the noise at all, just that one time while the car was jacked up. I saw the joint move and made a sound. Is this a hard job to do your self or should I just have a mechanic do it.

 

sometimes its hard to get the noise to happen again ,i had replaced whole front and rear suspension on mine b4 i got rid of it(had noise and didn't ride right). doing it yourself is a real pain in the ---,dodge doesn't recommend just replacing the ball joint(you can get aftermarket ball joints that can be pressed in) ,they say to replace whole control arm, to replace ball joint you have to take front strut out of car (not much room to press ball joint out), if you decide on control arm strut has to be taken apart

 

Hey there. Yeah I am just going to take it into a shop and have them do it. I was looking it up and it does look a bit difficult to attempt as I too saw that you had to have something to press it into place. Its like a giant riviot it looks like. I have a few shops that I can take it to. By chance, you know what a repair like that would cost? I'm going ot have both sides done since the other is an OEM still.

 

not sure of cost(around 4-600 dollars most likely); its 2.2 hours book labor per side times whatever they charge per hour,plus parts, alignment,shop charges