Hello all,

Well my truck has been acting up for a few weeks now and its slowly getting worse. When ever I'm driving on a fairly bumpy road (Almost every road in MN) the front suspension rattles a lot. Almost like a lot of stuff is loose. I went and looked under the truck and the sway bar is missing the passenger side brushing. I'm pretty sure this is causing most of the rattling. Well the driver side is rattling quite a bit as well, could this be my ball joints? Is there a way to test the ball joints to see if they're bad? Any idea how much this is going to cost if the brushing and the ball joints need to be replaced? Thanks guy

 

How are your front tires wearing? Are they wearing out on the inside, outside, or they are wearing even. My 99 Expedition had play in the upper control arms and I replaced them a couple weeks ago. Not a hard job, took 1.5 hours from start to finish (less the front end alignment). If you are wondering what might be loose in the suspension, jack the truck up, place jackstands in a safe place under the lower control arms and then let the vehicle rest on the stands. (IF YOU ARE NOT SURE OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING OR DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE DOING THIS, TAKE IT TO A PROFESSIONAL!) Once off the ground and resting on the stands, you can check the play in the bushings, and joints on each side by grasping the top and bottom of the wheel at the same time pushing in at the top and pulling out on the bottom. Then push in at the bottom and pull out at the top. This will let you know how much play is in the front suspension which could be either wheel bearings, ball joints, or control arm bushings. Another thing to look at is the condition of the tie rod ends and pitman arm. Are any of the rubber boots broken and grease leaking out or dirt packed in any of them? The best suggestion I can give you is find someone who does front wheel alignments and ask if they do free inspections. If you find one, then accompany them with your vehicle and watch how each item is checked. If they are good at what they do, they can tell you which component is bad and you can go fix it yourself if you wish. By the way, the upper control arm ball joint (on my 99 expedition) is pressed in and cannot be changed without changing the entire control arm. I have not looked at the lowers but I think the ball joints can be changed without changing the arm. By the way, you might just have play in the lower control arm bushings as well. If you already lost a bushing on the sway control bar, you might just consider doing a bushing change on the entire front end.

 

Awesome man thanks alot! The tires are wearing even and the truck just hit 70,000 miles so some wear and tear is expected. I need to change the oil anyway so i'll get under there again in a few days. Its just getting annoying listening to the rattle!