Front end "tink" or "pop"
- Thread starter OH3Cobra
- Start date
Mine 'tinks' or 'pops' or 'groans' when I turn to the right. It's been doing this since I bought the car in '06. Hasn't gotten better or worse even after spending several days on various road courses. The sound is the same whether standing still or moving at any speed. I just received some MM aluminum rack bushings that will be going in likely tomorrow morning. Maybe these will fix it up.
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I had a popping noise in my front end at slow speeds on the uneaven pavement and after hours on this forum and checking all the suspension I simply rocked the car one day back and forth in the garage and was able to re-create the noise.... it was my Stock Caster camber plates at the top of my strut towers. They had worn out and were rattling an popping. I replaced them with MM CC plates and some new shocks and all is well. Hope this helps! Good luck
Make sure it's not the balljoints either.
I had the same problem awhile back. I greased my Steeda x2 ball joints and it went away.
There is a high probability that those those aluminum rack bushing just need to be re-torqued.
Better yet would be to put a little grease on them and then re-torque them.
Mine did that too and I was quite surprised when the typical rack creak has come back, but I was able to make it go away with that method.
Better yet would be to put a little grease on them and then re-torque them.
Mine did that too and I was quite surprised when the typical rack creak has come back, but I was able to make it go away with that method.
Well, I got my MM Al rack bushings in this morning and for the first time in 5 years it is quiet while turning! I took Jimmy's advice and applied a light coat of grease on the rack bore prior to slipping in the bushings. Personally I would suggest a retorque of everything after ~100 miles or so. I think that spacer may move around and seat better after some vibration, and the torque on those bolts will fade.
Overall Ford's design of the rack mounting method is crap and very barnyard IMO. Or maybe the sheetmetal K-member is crap. Or maybe both. That crazy spacer/bushing thing is just a bad idea. It's easy to see why this rack creaks, pops, tinks, and groans so much and on so many cars.
However MM's rack bushings are an elegant solution to the variations of the stock K-member. Well done MM.
Overall Ford's design of the rack mounting method is crap and very barnyard IMO. Or maybe the sheetmetal K-member is crap. Or maybe both. That crazy spacer/bushing thing is just a bad idea. It's easy to see why this rack creaks, pops, tinks, and groans so much and on so many cars.
However MM's rack bushings are an elegant solution to the variations of the stock K-member. Well done MM.
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Thanks for posting this topic. I can't wait to get home from work and fix that damn popping sound I have had for 2 years!
I have this problem, have 93k miles now and its getting really bad. Going to try this. Thanks for the info.
I tried re-torquing and greasing the bushings idea, it helped for a few miles but the poping came back.
I spoke with MM and they said the poping could be from either bad inner
tie rods of from bad ball joints.
Either way I am going to check both out.
I spoke with MM and they said the poping could be from either bad inner
tie rods of from bad ball joints.
Either way I am going to check both out.
Plenty of good info I've got some of those noises as well
Ok i basically started having the same thing i finally got under my car a few week's ago and figured out what mine is. The hydro-Bushing on the driver side front control arm is shot basically. I just got the replacement ones from MM sitting in my garage waiting to go in.
Had the exact problem. Control arm bushings were smoked.
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