stangj2002

Just picked up a 03 GT yesterday and here are the issues so far:

Car makes a clacking noise when I hit bumps, lifted the car and noticed that the bushing near the lower sway bar (left side is gone). Car sits lower on the left side by about a 1/2 inch. anything else I can look for that may be causing this noise?

Next when I shift hard between gears, I hear a knocking noise from the steering wheel atleast thats where it seems to be coming from.. Might be the same noise I'm hearing when I hit bumps.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

school boy

the clacking is from the bushing being gone, sway bar bolt hitting the a arm. the steering wheel knock may be from a wore out trans crossmember bushing. this causes the trans to move on hard shifts

04BlueGT

Not 100% sure what you mean by "lower sway bar." I'd recommend you fix the issue you already know about then see if the second persists. At least you'll know what it's not.

stangj2002

Thanks for the replies.. So I did the following and still having a couple noises. We replaced the motor mounts, trani mounts, front tie rods, sway bar bushing. I am still getting a clacking noise when I go over something. So I open the hood and see that there are marks on the inner hood right above where the struts sit. Any thoughts?

uberstang1

Does the car have aftermarket caster/camber plates? Also I've seen quite a few instances where the drain holes in the a a-arm get cloged up, which causes water to build up in the lower spring perch and the springs rot out and crack near the bottom. Which causes the car to sit a little lower on the broken side, remove the spring and see if theres a coil rusted frozen in the a-arm, seperated from the rest of the spring.

stangj2002

definitely has aftermarket plates. the car also sits lower on the driver side, but the coils looks fine. Thanks

stangj2002

Do you think it may be my front struts bottoming out?

1998Slow 'Stang

A bad strut in a matching set of 2 or 4 will not cause one side to sit lower, the spring determines the ride height the stut just controls the bouncy feeling that a spring has.

If you do a lot of city driving down there in FL it is quite possible you have a bad front control arm bushing, now that will cause it to sit lower to one side......ask me how I know.

stangj2002

just had both CAB's replaced.. I do not know anymore...

uberstang1

Im still leaning towards a cracked spring, u can't tell untill u removed it and the lower isolater.