Hey eveyone, I have got this ca-clunk noise that I am trying to figure out and here it is. My truck has 6k miles on it. When I'm driving down the road aprox between 20 and 50 which ever it is and there is large cracks in the road or holes or just indifference in the road, when I go over them I hear a ca-clunk on the left side in front and I can feel the noise through the stearing wheel faintly. It dose'nt happen every bump but it seems like it has to be the "just right bump". Ok, today I put the truck up on jack stands in front and let the suspension relax. Grabbed front tire and moved back and forth (push-pull) fast and can hear ca-clunking noises. Front wheel bearings are fine no slop there. Could'nt really pin point it but the noise sounds like it is coming from stearing box, pitman balljoint, idler balljoint, it's hard to tell due to noise traveling through the center link. Added some grease to idler arm and ball joint w/ it, but no difference. All the ball joints seem to be all right to me nothing unusual. I did a search on this and could'nt find anything but "popping noises when turning" and I don't have that. I am wondering if larger tires cotribute to this noise. Stock size is 255/70/16 and I am running 285/75/16 or the noise I am hearing comes from the alowable tolerences in the whole stearing system?????? Or is this normal for these FORDs.It does'nt seem to be an issue where somthing is going to break or fall apart. My 01' s-crew did it too. Thanx in advance

 

Try sitting still and slowly moving the steering wheel from left to right, slightly. Mine had the same thing. Had to have the idler arm, pit man arm, and steering shaft universal replaced under warrenty.

 

Hey phicouch thanks for the reply: I did try that, but I would take the steering wheel and turn it back and forth fast not slow and the noise is still there but not as pronounced. What year is your truck? And what truck do you have? I wanted to get some replies on this to determine how I will go about this with the warranty. My dealer isn't too bad as long as I go there w/ some good points to start with them and they usually can pin point. It's all trial and error, they're only doing their job.

 

If you take it in to your dealer make sure you go for a drive with either the service advisor or preferably with the tech that will be working on it. Quite often people bring their vehicles in and say to fix the clunk but we take it for a spin and hear a whole bunch of noises and dont know which one they are talking about or we hear nothing.
With only 6k on it I doubt that anything would be worn out so they should probably be looking for loose or damaged parts.
It sounds strange but if a tie rod end is "twisted" too far it can cause a clunk. By that I mean that sitting there it isnt centered. It should be in the middle of how far it can rotate back and forth. Hard to explain.

 

Thanks Racerguy, I have looked at that also (tie rod ends) and they are centered exactly, but when I had it up on the jacks I turned the wheels to the left and right till they hit the stops and did notice tie rod that connects to the center link, they are not exactly centered I don't know if that would cause it, but are those suppose to be centered also? The noise is in that general area, between the the center link. Like I said the steering box is on the drivers side and from the pitman if I put my hand on it and have somebody push pull tire vigerisly thats where I hear it and feel it. Thanx for the reply. Rich

 

Mine is a 2003 XLT 4.6 motor. 10,500 miles. Must have been a factory defect. No way it could be wear.