Front end noise

The noise can come from several different things. What I would check would be the following:

Cracked coil spring.

Cracked or damaged stabilizer bar or link.

Tracking bar bushings.

You are the first person to mention the chassis ear, and you are right; most mechanics do not know it exists. They are available from the guys who visit repair shops each week with the tool trucks, but you can also find them on Amazon for half the price. The original model had six wired microphones. There is a newer model with four wireless microphones and two with wires, and another model with six wireless microphones.

The place to have your vehicle inspected is at a tire and alignment shop. The people there are experts at finding the causes of noises, vibrations, and bad tire wear. This is especially important with Ford products. They have much more suspension and steering part failures than all other manufacturers combined. By the time you hear the noises, I would be afraid to drive the vehicle. When a ball joint separates, you do not know if you will be skidding into the ditch or into oncoming traffic.

I worked for a mass merchandiser as an alignment specialist for seven years. Every Wednesday we got in a shipment of ball joints and tie rod ends. Typically the order included a dozen parts for GM cars and trucks, a half dozen for Chrysler products, three or four for all the import models, and 44 parts for just four Ford car models, plus others for the other Ford cars and trucks. By Saturday we had run out of those 44 parts and we had to order more from the local auto parts stores.

Later I worked at a new-car dealership as their suspension and alignment specialist. I spent more time replacing steering and suspension parts on Ford trade-ins than I did working on all the other brands. At least one Ford truck owner traded his truck on one of our new ones when it was being towed in after going into the ditch because of a separated tie rod end. The problem is these worn parts do not always make noise before they break, so it is important to have regular inspections. I recommend once a year for Ford products, and once every other year for all other brands, but we also had a Thunderbird check out perfectly fine, then a lower ball joint broke seven hundred miles later when the family was on vacation. The owner said it started making noise about one hundred miles before the crash.

At first I suspected you had worn anti-sway bar inks or bushings based on your dandy observation the nose stops when turning to one side. Doing that raises one front corner of the vehicle and lowers the other front corner. That puts the anti-sway bar into a twist that puts pressure on the sloppy parts and prevents them from making noise. On most car models, the anti-sway bar is not a safety part of the suspension system, so it is not critical it be repaired right away, but you need to know that from the inspection.

When you added the braking issue to the story, that points to ball joints and tie rod ends, and that is where I get nervous. The wheels are under very high stress from pot holes and other bumps, road forces, and braking forces. You have two lower control arms in each front corner with the ball joints incorporated into them. Those ball joints are not very substantial, but they do not need to be with this design. The coil spring is pushing down on the spindle directly. The ball joints just hold the spindle/wheel in position. They do not carry any of the vehicle's weight.

When you accelerate, the torque tugs each front wheel to steer toward the center of the vehicle a hundred times harder than you could hold it straight by hand. It is when you connect them together with the steering linkage that they offset each other, but you can see how much stress that puts on the tie rod ends. The stress from braking can be even higher. Just imagine how severe the pounding is each time you accelerate and brake.

For a long time Ford used "rubber bonded socket" outer tie rod ends that were a disaster. The ball was dropped into the socket, then it was filled with molten rubber to glue the two parts together. It was no surprise when that rubber tore apart in about 15,000 miles from twisting when turning the steering system, but they kept on using those parts on their front-wheel-drive cars. Those are the ones we could not keep in stock from one week to the next. The aftermarket replacements are the more reliable design and they come with grease fittings.

If you want to start the diagnosis yourself, the outer anti-sway bar links also use little balls and sockets, and while this design is not a safety issue, it is common for them to make a rattling noise. As I mentioned, one clue is the noise will stop when you turn slightly either way. It is easiest to hear when driving slowly through a parking lot. Turn the steering system straight ahead, then reach over the top of a front tire to find the link. Wrap your fingertips lightly around the link, then use your arm to lift and relax the body repeatedly. You only need to lift it a half inch or so. Have a helper do that if necessary. If that link is worn, you will feel the knocking in your fingers. Do that on the other side too because the knocking of one worn link rarely transmits over to the other side. Before you replace the links, have a helper bounce the vehicle a little while you watch the bar where it is supported by the inner bushings. Those bushings have a much lower failure rate, but if you see the bar move up and down inside the bushing, replace them. Worn bushings make a more subdued thump that is harder to hear than an outer link. Also, bushing noise is less likely to stop when turning.

Ball joints have to be "unloaded" to inspect them, meaning the stress they are under when holding up a car, or holding the spindle in place, has to be removed. On most cars that just means jacking it up so the tires are off the ground. The first thing I do on every car that comes into the shop is to grab each front tire and try to push it left and right repeatedly. You only need a little force. You do not have to actually turn the steering system. You will feel the "clunk, clunk" if a tire rod end on that side is sloppy. For that, you will need a helper to do that so you can peek underneath to see if it is the inner, outer, or both that has the unacceptable movement. The outers fail about ten times to one inner failure. Another trick, if the tie rods are okay, is to do the same tugging, but harder. The steering linkage will act like a fulcrum, and the tire/wheel is the lever to tug and push on the ball joint. If you feel a clunking now, suspect the ball joint. This does not always work effectively to find a worn ball joint when you have two for each front wheel.

The standard tool for checking ball joints used to be a big pry bar to lift the wheel/tire, but it is less complicated on your vehicle. Squeeze the ball joints together with a large channel lock pliers, then try to separate them with a small pry bar. You are looking for movement between the housing and the stud. If there is no up-and-down play, have a helper tug the tire left and right again while you watch for sideways movement between the housing and stud. The tugging should not be so aggressive as to cause the steering wheel to turn because the normal rotation of the stud within the housing can make it look like there is play between the parts.

Struts can make a thumping noise too, but at the mileage you listed, those are not real good suspects yet. These are harder to inspect because there is a hard plastic boot in the way. You need to reach over the tire, through the coil spring, to lift that boot so you can get your fingertip on top of the strut body right next to where the shaft comes out, with your fingertip just touching the shaft. This has to be done with the vehicle sitting on the tires, although it can be raised a little if necessary to get your hand in there. This test cannot be done when the vehicle is jacked up with the suspension hanging down because it is the strut that limits how far the suspension can hang down. All the weight of the spindle, control arms, wheel, tire, and brakes will be on the strut's shaft, so even if the strut is badly worn, you will not be able to make it move. While feeling the shaft with your fingertip, use your other hand to push in and pull out on the top of the tire. If you feel the shaft moving back and forth, that will make a rubbery thumping noise that will change during cornering. You have to be careful to not push so hard on the tire as to cause the vehicle to rise and fall. That will make the shaft extend out of the strut body and retract into it. That can feel like sideways movement of the shaft when that strut is in fact okay. The additional clue to a noisy strut is when they get so bad that the shaft can wobble, it has been wobbling away from the upper seal for a long time, and the oil is all leaked out. You may find the strut body is wet with oil, or dirt has caked onto that oil and dried there.

Control arm bushings used to easily last the life of the vehicle, but today they are made from softer rubber for better ride quality. That means the pounding they take destroys them sooner. Your design is best checked with the vehicle jacked up by the frame so the suspension can hang down freely. If a bushing is real badly worn, you will see torn pieces of rubber peeking out, but the better test is to use a small pry bar to try to move the control arm sideways and up and down. The lower control arms and bushings get hammered on the most because they are holding the tire in alignment where it sits on the road surface. The upper control arm bushings and upper ball joint just hold the wheel straight up and down. Road forces have much less effect on the upper parts so they do not wear out as quickly.

I do not like to hear that someone guessed, as replacing random parts in hopes one solves the problem is the most expensive and least effective way to diagnose the cause, however, there are times when logic does not pan out and we are stumped. I have run into noises and brake system problems that I have spent over a full day on, including with a helper, before we finally figured out the causes, which turned out to be simple and inexpensive fixes, and I am supposed to be the expert.

Steering and suspension system diagnosis is a somewhat complex specialty area. The majority of mechanics know how to replace parts properly, but many of them do not know all the tricks available in finding those elusive problems. Anything more than an obvious clunking ball joint or tie rod end is a mystery. That is why I always recommend the tire and alignment shops for noises and vibrations.

If you feel the chassis ear is needed but no one has one, consider finding a nearby community college with an automotive program. They are often looking for live work to give their kids real-world experience, but there are some stipulations. We charged ten bucks per hour for what repairs were supposed to take, and we got parts at real good discounts, then marked them up ten percent to form a "breakage" fund in case we damaged something. The trade-off for low cost is you may need to leave the vehicle for as much as a week since the students might only be in the shop for a few hours per day, and you will need to have steering and suspension diagnostics done when they are teaching that subject. That can be only once or twice per year. To do suspension work in electrical class, for example, takes learning time away from that subject, and it takes work away from the shops that hire the graduates. Any well-equipped automotive program should have a chassis ear.

(Hi JACOBANDNICKOLAS. I did not plan on butting in to your conversation last night. I typed for over an hour, then did battle with my computer that was starting to lock up intermittently. Did not want to lose all my wondrous story so I posted it while I had the chance).

The specialists at any tire and alignment shop have multiple ways of supporting vehicles to load and unload various suspension parts. You'll almost always find the cause to be rather simple and straight-forward, although there have been a few cases of the floor pan flexing and producing an "oil can" effect.

Remember the old, round oil cans that had a long, thin spout? You pressed on the bottom with your thumb to make it snap. That flexing pushed out a few drops of oil. Body panels have ribs, bends, and curves stamped into them to prevent them from flexing and snapping back and forth. Sometimes that is not enough and a panel, particularly a floor panel, can snap. That occurs when bouncing over bumpy roads. In at least one model that could get bad enough that over time about a 6" crack opened up in the floor, right under the center of the dash. The people at any body shop can fix that rather easily with a wire-feed welder, but to stop it from occurring, often all that's needed is a few good whacks with a rubber hammer. Anything that deforms a perfectly flat piece of sheet metal will prevent that popping from occurring.

Hits can do unseen damage, but it sounds like yours wasn't hit that hard.

Your description does not point to upper strut mounts, but to check them, reach over the top of a front tire, then lightly wrap your fingertips around the coil spring. Have a helper slowly turn the steering wheel. The spring should rotate smoothly with the wheel. If it is binding, you'll feel the spring wind up, then suddenly pop free and turn, or it can just turn with excessive roughness. That binding causes a popping noise when turning and standing still. Bumps in the road, when moving slowly, allow the mounts to loosen up and turn. Braking and accelerating don't have any effect on the noise mounts make.

I was leaning toward inner sway bar bushings, but I see I mentioned that already. Your main clue that applies here is the noise stops when the steering wheel is turned a little.

Keep in mind most people scream bloody murder when we sell them a part they think isn't needed, or it doesn't solve all the problems. You ran into a bunch of people who specifically did not try to sell you stuff they didn't think you needed. We have to be absolutely sure a part is bad before we try to sell it. Most of us have had the bad experience of suggesting a part might be causing the problem, and the customer hears that as "they told me that part is bad and you say it isn't". Of course they want to believe the person whose diagnosis is going to cost them less money. Replacing parts as a trial and error method of diagnosing a problem is the most expensive and least effective way of diagnosing a problem, and we only do that on our own cars, but then we have only ourselves to blame.

Since you had to go to so many shops, it should be obvious there is something unusual going on as to why the culprit was so hard to find. Load-carrying ball joints have to be unloaded to check for play, and that usually means lifting the vehicle on a hoist to allow the suspension parts to hang freely. That puts the control arms at the lowest point in the arc they make, and it puts the ball joints' balls in an angle within the socket that is also at the end of its travel and in an orientation it rarely sees while driving unless you go over a jump. The wear that has taken place between the ball and socket is causing excessive clearance when the suspension is sitting at normal ride height, meaning on the tires. There's no way anyone is going to poke and pry on parts and make them move enough to identify a worn part. The best anyone could do is sit the tires on the sliding slip plates that are used during an alignment. That would allow the tires to move sideways freely with the vehicle's weight on them, but it's still almost impossible to see movement between the parts of the ball joints while tugging on a pry bar. It's not uncommon for a sloppy ball joint to become tight when the vehicle is raised off the ground and the stud is at an extreme angle. Very often we don't even realize just how badly-worn the joint is until after it is removed and examined.

Dandy. Happy to hear it's solved. Come back to see us again, especially before you spend a pile of dollars on something that might not be needed.