I'm going to have my front CA bushings replaced with PowerFlex's tomorrow, along with the sway bar bushings and end links. Anything else to do while the subframe is dropped? Should I be thinking about ball joints? 110k on the originals. Thanks!
Wiggle the ball joints while disconnected, they should offer some resistance. If they feel dry, gritty, have lateral or vertical movement, or feel just plain sloppy, its time to replace. Inspect each dust boot for tears or surface cracking. If you would like to have road & engine noise reduced in the cabin, now is the time to pull the header & heat shields and apply thermal and acoustical barriers to the firewall and forward exhaust channel. Check the seal around the steering column, clean the PS fan with compressed air, clean and straighten the AC heat exchanger fins, and inspect the coolant hose fittings at the firewall inlets.
Gracias, Sr. Huevo. I like me some good engine noise, so no plans to try and reduce it. Will definitely have them inspect the ball joints and blow out the PS fan.
Keith beat me to the punch... ball joints. They're cheap and easy to swap with the sub frame down and the control arms off. Matt
Ok, finally got this done. Ball joints were in good shape. Put in PF CA bushings (pre-pressed from WMW), PF front swaybar bushings, and TSW endlinks. Feels like a new car! The annoying clunk I had been living with for more than a year is gone. Steering is so much crisper and connected. Zero NVH issues with the PF CA bushings. Happy camper.
If you had the clunk... at lest one side was really, really bad. I really, really don't like the stock unit. Matt
Clunk happened at slow speeds whenever there was independent vertical wheel movement up front. I diagnosed it a while back as a bad front swaybar bushing. Just took me a while to get it fixed because I chickened out of dropping the subframe myself...
I had the clunk whenever I would make a slow turn into a parking space or driveway. Keith replaced what was left of my bushings (among other things) with the PowerFlex. The suspension is now better than ever.
Easy test to see if it is related to swaybar links or bushings: Disconnect one link and take a test drive. When I did this, my clunk was gone. I then checked joints on both links and they were good. Finally grabbed the disconnected end of the bar and moved it up and down. Lo and behold, lots of play in one bushing. QED.
For those with a front end cluck... stock front control arm bushing failure is more common than front sway bar bushing failure. Test to see what it is! Matt