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I thought I'd post this in case anyone else has the same symptom. I don't recall this ever having come up here before, but apologies if it's a common topic.
I've heard this noise before, and no, it's not halfshafts. A klungg from the front end with a sorta vibrating tone that sounded like the spring was involved, especially (but not always) when turning more than gently, or hitting (but not always) a deflection in the pavement, pothole or otherwise. I've shaken the wheels every which way but all seemed tight, rubber bushings included, whether jacked from the support arm or body. Finally, I tried running a bar over the sway bar and under the support arm while jacked from the body, and pressing down on the bar. Bingo! The steering knuckle moved dramatically up and down on the control arm balljoint stud. Yikes, lucky it didn't pop off! And this with a new control arm from less than a year ago, too. (I didn't recall any unusual wear on the old balljoint stud, either - that joint was just worn out in the ball.)
Anyway, removing the steering knuckle, there was what seemed to be a subtle (to the eye) but even taper from the bottom to the level of the pinch bolt. Replacing the knuckle solved the problem - the balljoint stud seemed undamaged. I assume that this happened over time from a pinch bolt that wasn't tightened enough, but I would have expected something created by wear to be egg-shaped, and this seemed pretty round, as if it had been machined that way from the start. In over 20yrs of working on Festiva front suspensions, I don't recall ever seeing a balljoint stud that was anything but straight-sided, but were there ever studs (perhaps on early models?) that were tapered from the pinchbolt groove down? This is probably the third Festiva I've had this knuckle on, over the years, and thinking about it now it's possible that this knuckle has been the source of this familiar noise on all of them.
I've heard this noise before, and no, it's not halfshafts. A klungg from the front end with a sorta vibrating tone that sounded like the spring was involved, especially (but not always) when turning more than gently, or hitting (but not always) a deflection in the pavement, pothole or otherwise. I've shaken the wheels every which way but all seemed tight, rubber bushings included, whether jacked from the support arm or body. Finally, I tried running a bar over the sway bar and under the support arm while jacked from the body, and pressing down on the bar. Bingo! The steering knuckle moved dramatically up and down on the control arm balljoint stud. Yikes, lucky it didn't pop off! And this with a new control arm from less than a year ago, too. (I didn't recall any unusual wear on the old balljoint stud, either - that joint was just worn out in the ball.)
Anyway, removing the steering knuckle, there was what seemed to be a subtle (to the eye) but even taper from the bottom to the level of the pinch bolt. Replacing the knuckle solved the problem - the balljoint stud seemed undamaged. I assume that this happened over time from a pinch bolt that wasn't tightened enough, but I would have expected something created by wear to be egg-shaped, and this seemed pretty round, as if it had been machined that way from the start. In over 20yrs of working on Festiva front suspensions, I don't recall ever seeing a balljoint stud that was anything but straight-sided, but were there ever studs (perhaps on early models?) that were tapered from the pinchbolt groove down? This is probably the third Festiva I've had this knuckle on, over the years, and thinking about it now it's possible that this knuckle has been the source of this familiar noise on all of them.
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