98 Grand Marquis Upper Ball Joint making noise?

Oct 06, 2003 1 Replies

Hi Al: I am still trying to figure out what is going on in this car. I keep getting a "clunk" ehrn I make a hard turn into my driveway, ot sometimes on the open road. It is coming from the front passanger side. Yesterday I had the front wheel off. I noticed that the upper ball joint has a slight tear in the rubber protector boot. In additon, there are no grease fittings. Is it possible that this ball joint is the problem? I sometimes get vibration on that side of the car. The brake rotors seem okay buit they are not smooth. They were not turned whne I had a brake job done on this car. The car has 75,000 miles.


As I understand it, Ford doesn't recommenr turning rotors any more. FWIW, they are easily removed and replaced and don't cost much. I just did a 4 wheel job on my Crown Vic - the manual says to lightly sand the rotor and clean before putting new pads on.

Personally, I have never turned a rotor. I figured everything would wear in quickly and so far, I have never experienced shortened brake pad life.

The clunk could be many things, the top ball joint *might* be it. More likely, a rubber busing is worn. I had a car with torn rubber cups on the ball joints and I got a needle tip for the grease gun and shot it full, just to protect it. I think it lasted past 100k miles... it was a bit untidy looking, tho.

PoD

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