Hey all,
I changed out my all four shock/struts on my 2006 Expedition a little over a year ago with some (IIRC) PCS brand quick struts that had the coil and shock already mounted together. After installation, the front end had has had some noise coming from it like there was a loose bolted connection. Fast forward a few months ago and I was having some work done on the Expo and the mechanic informed me that one of the front shocks were blown and leaking oil. I ended up buying the Monroe quick struts this time (front only, left the rear for now), slapped them in and there is still the same noise. I had hoped that changing them out would have fixed the noise since I would be tightening all the connections again. I vaguely remember loosening the sway bar connections on the drivers side to try and get the lower arm to swing down some more to get the original shock out, and the noise seems dominant from the driver's side, but I'm somewhat confident that I re-tightened everything and even last night tried to tighten the sway bar connections again and any nut or bolt under the wheel well and they wouldn't budge.
I know this is hard to diagnosis over the internet, but are there any suggestions for what to try next? Was I supposed to tighten the top nut on the shock body before they were installed? Only other thing I can think of was that I got an alignment done after the original shocks were installed, maybe they left something loose.

 

The bushings in the swaybar mounts (not ends) widen and the swaybar will make noises as you go over bumps.

 

I'm imagining that would make a squeaky noise? This noise I'm getting is more of a metal to metal clanging.

 

In my world "imagining" and "assuming" are interchangeable.

 

I finally got to this and ended up replacing the bushings and end links. Noise went away. All the old parts looked fine, but yes, the old bushings were a little wider than the new ones.