2007 Front Suspension Thunking Noise

[casperorr]

Hello Gang, It was me that posted the "possibly get together and get noticed" idea. I live in Arizona and there was a simular argument going on for another group of people. Not the same as our problem, but all in all the same type of goal was trying to be reached. By no means did I want to push the issue, it was just an idea and a little venting. I agree with Wolfey2k, waiting for the TSB is the answer, although patience is not my strong point, in the end it is or atleast seems to be worth it. I am going to Phoenix in the morning, and if one of the dealers there have the cross member in stock I am going to purchase it and have it installed. I will let you know what I find tomorrow. KEEP UP THE FIGHT! Thanks to all who are standing the cause, Casper

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[RICVA05]

ORIGINAL: northy_polk

RICVA05: fear not, I'll post the results. Looks like we've got the same car aside from the wheels! Just a few things. I'm assuming that your Tokicos did not come with their own, non-OEM mounts. . . And obviously since you haven't installed the HDs yet you can't answer whether that will work! I say [as evidenced by all the sh!t I'm having installed] put an Aarm AND a strut tower brace on there too. Hell, what's another couple hundred bucks right. . . I'm this much closer to bankruptcy BUT HEY I've still got my health and my girlfriend, so I'm going for it!

ps: where's chesterfield? we'll have to grab a beer once these damn things are SILENT and CORNERING ON RAILS.

No A-arms for me I will let some body else be the test dummy for that one after all it was a pain in the a** installing the ball joints in the stocked control armsI am not about to do that again. I don't have much faith that Ford will come up with a fix for this I've been waiting two years for it so I figure I might as well enjoy modding the hell out of it. My car has looked like this for two weeks. Oh Chesterfield is in the metro part of Richmond,Va.

[wolfey2k]

ORIGINAL: casperorr

Hello Gang,
It was me that posted the "possibly get together and get noticed" idea. I live in Arizona and there was a simular argument going on for another group of people. Not the same as our problem, but all in all the same type of goal was trying to be reached. By no means did I want to push the issue, it was just an idea and a little venting. I agree with Wolfey2k, waiting for the TSB is the answer, although patience is not my strong point, in the end it is or atleast seems to be worth it. I am going to Phoenix in the morning, and if one of the dealers there have the cross member in stock I am going to purchase it and have it installed. I will let you know what I find tomorrow. KEEP UP THE FIGHT!

Thanks to all who are standing the cause,
Casper

Hey Caspey!
chances are the dealer won't have that cross member in stock unless someone orderd it then didn't pick it up or install it. I was told it's an order only piece and requires 2 to 5 days to arrive.
Short of your getting the dealer to take one off of a convertable then install it on yours, which is an idear, you'll probably be SOL but I hope I am wrong.

Also, with the strut clacking going on 'that's what Ford calls the noise', the damage has already been done so you'll need a new set of strut mounts too. I wish I had known about the cross member when the dealer replaced both my strut assemblies including new strut mounts. I would have at least tried to talk them into putting one on my car under warranty at that time. If they didn't which they probably wouldn't of, I would have paid for it and had it installed.
I bet that would have been the end of my thunking problem but I'd be out of another 300 bucks and I'd be ticked off about it because I already paid for a new car that is supposed to be defect free!

Anyway, best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

Wolfey2k

[Chritaka]

Just an updateabout my issue. I jacked the car up and started going through the front suspension. I put the car on stands posititioned under the front a-arm support and used my jack to push the a-arm up to load the suspension some. This took pressure off the upper strut mounts so I could adjust them. I readjusted the Steeda HD strut mounts since the shop just pushed them all the way inboard. I slid them back out and adjusted the camber by eye-balling them until I can get into the alignment shop. I then started checking the swaybar. The passenger side lower endlink needed to be snugged up a little. I then moved to the drivers side and the nut was about to fall off the lower endlink connected to the new Steeda swaybar! I had to use a small socket to hold the tip of the bolt while I tighted it down with a wrench. I put thread-loc on the nut and tightened it down astight as I could. My sockets were either toolong and couldn't get it in thereor too shallow and couldn't get the ratchet on the socket due to the length of the bolt. So I had to use a wrench on the nut and small ratchet on the bolt tip.

I found a couple mentions of the same problem with a few others after they replaced the front swaybar. Apparently those nuts on the endlinks are only meant for a one-time use, but you can get some other nuts from Ford to replace them that aren't one-time use. You can also just use thread-loc on the originals and just torque them down really good.

Ijust gotback from driving the car for 2 hrs and no "thunk" at all! I hit dips going 55+ mph, drove over rough roads and tried some speed bumps. Nothing but smooth...Hope this helps some of you.

*Note*- My add-ons in sig if you have questions about what I'm running.

[northy_polk]

um. . . well at least you have a garage to keep the car in, right? I park outside and do work on it in rain, sleet, snow, you name it. Ok, I'm an idiot, but at least I'm dedicated dammit! To be continued. . .

[wolfey2k]

ORIGINAL: rls82959

I have written to the Ford Board of Directors and courtesy copied Ford Motor Company Customer Relationship Center and my Dealer. If this is not resolved I will sit on the street in front of my dealer every Saturdaywith a sign that reads "BEWARE, NOISY FRONT SUSPENSION, FORD WILL NOT FIX!"
Clearly, I don't want to spend my Spring & Summer Saturdays doing this, but I did not spend $22k for this kind of poor quality.

My letter was polite, I simply asked them to confirm and expedite the TSB.
I added that owning and driving this brand new car is not enjoyable and it is very frustrating to wait for my new car to be fixed. I enclosed my service invoice, which states the 2nd quarter TSB is in the works.
I also stated that my dealer is very good and their hands are tied waiting for the TSB.

Way to go rls! Good move!
Let us know if you hear back from board of bozo's. ;-)
What you did is helping get the issue dealt with and terminatedly handled by Ford. Excellent!

[RICVA05]

ORIGINAL: northy_polk

um. . . well at least you have a garage to keep the car in, right? I park outside and do work on it in rain, sleet, snow, you name it. Ok, I'm an idiot, but at least I'm dedicated dammit! To be continued. . .

If you lived a little closer we could push the 89 forward and work on both.

[wolfey2k]

ORIGINAL: Chritaka

Just an updateabout my issue. I jacked the car up and started going through the front suspension. I put the car on stands posititioned under the front a-arm support and used my jack to push the a-arm up to load the suspension some. This took pressure off the upper strut mounts so I could adjust them. I readjusted the Steeda HD strut mounts since the shop just pushed them all the way inboard. I slid them back out and adjusted the camber by eye-balling them until I can get into the alignment shop. I then started checking the swaybar. The passenger side lower endlink needed to be snugged up a little. I then moved to the drivers side and the nut was about to fall off the lower endlink connected to the new Steeda swaybar! I had to use a small socket to hold the tip of the bolt while I tighted it down with a wrench. I put thread-loc on the nut and tightened it down astight as I could. My sockets were either toolong and couldn't get it in thereor too shallow and couldn't get the ratchet on the socket due to the length of the bolt. So I had to use a wrench on the nut and small ratchet on the bolt tip.

I found a couple mentions of the same problem with a few others after they replaced the front swaybar. Apparently those nuts on the endlinks are only meant for a one-time use, but you can get some other nuts from Ford to replace them that aren't one-time use. You can also just use thread-loc on the originals and just torque them down really good.

Ijust gotback from driving the car for 2 hrs and no "thunk" at all! I hit dips going 55+ mph, drove over rough roads and tried some speed bumps. Nothing but smooth...Hope this helps some of you.

*Note*- My add-ons in sig if you have questions about what I'm running.

Wow, some guys don't know their thunks from their clunks ;-D. Just kidding!
I know what that sounds like and it's quite different from the sound a lose or clacking strut mount/bearing makes. When an end link ball joint/bolt is lose one will hear more of a metalic rattle or clacking sound. Much more defined than a strut bearing thunk. The thunk one hears is due to the sound being somewhat dampened by the wheel well, fire wall and body as the sound is transmitted into the driver cockpit.
End links will rattle orclunk, not thunk.
I hope this makes sense. Just trying to describe the differences in sound diagnostically speaking ;-).
Glad you handled your problem though. I know it must be a great relief to be rid of unnecessary racket!

[Embalmer]

ORIGINAL: wolfey2k



Remember you guys, and any of you can test this for yourself, the convertables don't thunk! They share exactly the same parts as we do except for the addition of the subframecross member. They have it and our's don't have it. New stock front ends with cross members = NO THUNKING.
New stock front ends without cross members = THUNKING!

I would try the cross membernow but I don't want to blow the chance of getting it fixed under warranty. I would also insist that theyat least replace thestrut mounts if not the entire strut assemblies at the same time so we start off fresh! And yes I did already ask if Ford would re-emburse me for the cost of the cross member install when they come out with the TSB and I was told "no".

Wolfey,

I'm still hanging around waiting for some results, but I must correct you on the above statement. Unless you aren't counting the Steeda G-Trac brace as "the bar" I've replaced both upper mounts and added the bar to no avail. The only thing I'm confident in is that if Ford reengineers the strut mounts we might have the solution.

[northy_polk]

ORIGINAL: RICVA05

If you lived a little closer we could push the 89 forward and work on both.

i did find that a little ironic that you had TWO mustangs up on stands in your garage! just think of it as miles saved. . . you know, an extension to your "warranty" so to speak.