front end noise

[Krankendil]

My 1997 Aspire has a popping noise at the front when taking off or coming to a stop or sometimes when hitting a bump. Upon visual inspection all ball joints and bushings and cv boots look good. I greased all the joints also. Does someone have an idea of something for me to look for next?Thanks.

Krankendil (Dayton, Ohio)

[Festy46]

Check your engine and transmission mounts. Lift the hood, stand at the side of the car, start the engine and have someone "punch" the accelerator. Watch for the engine to rock back and forth. If it moves more than about 1/4", you may have a broken mount. If the engine is solid, jack up the front of the car. Put a 2 x 4 or some type of pry bar under the front tire and lift up on the wheel. Have someone watch the suspension parts when you do that and you should be able to locate where the noise is coming from. Check the bolts in the top of the shock towers. They could be loose.
John

[rotinaj13]

Did you check the inner cv boot? it sounds like and inner joint. Brakes hanging up. Lose suspesion parts. Lose engine/tran mount. Put car in air. put in neutral. Spin each tire checking for a hung up break. Pull on the top bottom and sides of the tire checking for play. inspect engine mounts. lower car, start, rev up from under the hood and watch for exsesive engine movement. Post findings.

[Krankendil]

no luck yet

I have checked everything again and I cannot find anything loose. All the joints that I can see look good. I was wondering if the struts could be the source of the popping. What do you think?

Krankendil (Dayton,Ohio)

[HappyMom]

having the boots replaced is pointless. If your axles are clicking, they need to be replaced, simple as that.

Replacing the boot just bandaids torn boots or cracked boots but doesn't fix the wear & tear that is already done internally to the axle

I can now here a tock-tock when I hit a bump since I've had all this work done. (see tie-rod and cv joints post) Is that what Wil meant by clicking? All I know is when they tried taking the new axle out to replace the seal (leaking tranny) it was stuck. The garage ordered a spare axle to have in case. Any relation?

[HappyMom]

Please tell me I am not losing my tranny....

More and more I here a loudish tock sound when I turn or it a bump or pothole, all at slow speed. It is coming form the front end, could be from a wheel or tranny, it's hard to tell, but it is from the bottom of the car.

Also, sometimes I have a hard time shifting, which I never had before, it just doesn't want to go in, even though the clutch is fully pressed and it still 50% good (checked about 1 month ago)

I got a whold bunch of wrok done on the steerin (new rack, tie-rods, CV joints....)

If my tranny is toast, I'll be looking for another car...

[2ndmouse]

I have the same noise.... I had it inspected and they went over it with a fine tooth comb. nothing.
so the other day I rocked the car real hard by hand and had someone watch where the noise was coming from...

its a bad ball joint. Even the inspectr guy was suprised, he checked the ball joints.
but it does just what you are discribing.

I called up a parts store they dont carry that ball joint/lower arm part, its a dealer onny part..
so I called a ford garage, and they tell me "$258 bucks, each side, but its on indefinite back order"
that means they aint gonna have em...

so i went to my favorite salvage yard and he had a couple aspires, some with little miles and some worn out rags... a control arm/ball joint part off the best one cost me 45 bucks, the cars clock said 27K and the ball jint seems tight... better than no part at all.
I saw a new one on ebay for 104.00 total shipped. I'll take the 45 buck salvage.

have someone grab the fender well edge and rock your car HARD till it makes that noise and let the mechanic watch the ball joint... I bet it pops in and out of its socket.
check it quick, Ive had ball joints break before at speed and its no fun...