JoshyGT

I noticed a rather obnoxious clicking, more like a popping, limited to the front of the car (specifically the drivers side) while driving at very low speeds and turning the wheel and/or going over bumps. The sound is not repetitive unless its a bumpy ride, like if I'm pulling out of a parking lot and there's a dip in the road.

I'm pushing 150K miles but just had the tie rod ends replaced about 10K miles ago - so I can't imagine that being the problem. My guess was the ball joints.

I've done some research and from what I can tell, the ball joints are part of the lower control arms. It also appears that I can replace the stock ones with control arms from the GT500. Here are my questions:

1 - Am I right about the ball joints or do you have other ideas?

2 - Where's the best place to get the GT500 front lower control arms most cost-effectively? (best I've seen is $350)

3 - Any suggestions on the most clear write-up for the install? I want to do this myself but most of the instructions/guides/videos I've found are not too clear.

Thanks for the help!

808muscle

I replaced mine with gt500 ones at 22k miles. All noise was fixed. Got mine via eBay for the best price....about $275 or less. AM has a nice install write up.

duckbubbles

With that many miles, you probably need ball joints. You may also need upper strut mounts. They were improved on later year models, GT500's are better. The whole front end needs a good looking at.

Frank

Menace

I only have 50k miles and same noise. I have Steeda HD Mounts, springs, Koni shocks. Steeda Tie-rod Ends. I was thinking maybe it was a noise coming from the fender liner since some of those cheap plastic fasteners have come off ...

Nuke

If it had been happening from the start, I'd have to say to check into the TSB for the infamous front end clunk.

808muscle

I tried everything else first.....tightened the sh*t out of every bolt and GT500 strut mounts to no avail. Then did the GT500 LCA and then finally she was quiet. Swap them out.

JFitz

Tie-rod ends fixed my rattle.


Well...one of them anyway...

whosniffedme

It could be your ball joints, but what I think it is is one of the camber plates, AKA strut mounts came apart and that's the ball bearings crunching in there. You can fix it yourself if you have the patience. It sounds exactly like what my car was doing, you just take the thing apart and there's about a hundred metal bbs in there, you have to put them all back into their plastic housing and re-lube and assemble the mount. Or, you can just buy new ones. To take it apart though, you're going to need a spring compressor. Let me know if you have anymore questions, I think I have pics of me doing this somewhere...

808muscle

I cant imagine putting all those ball bearings back into place. LOL... When I swapped out strut mounts one of them just vomited those BB's everywhere. I was like cool I found the broken part and source of my clunk..... NOT. I have noticed in reading many threads about this issue........if you have noise turning the wheel then its possibly more strut mount related. If no noise turning but noise over any kind of small bump etc in the road its more ball joint (LCA) related. The lucky guys just tighten the endlinks.

Antonio323

Subscribed. I have the same noise on my sixxer at 30K miles.