My 95 Contour has a creaking sound when I push down on the front fenders coming from down below in the suspension area. I was just ignoring it until I heard the radio "car guys" take a call about a similar noise and they unhestitatingly said: BAD BALL JOINTS.
Now I am worried as bad ball joints can also be a safety issue if they fall apart on the road. To check them, the Haynes books says jack the car up and look for play in the wheel. I think I did that last year and found very little or no play (I will check that again). I am also going to try the oil-can "fix" by squirking oil on all suspension joints to see if the sound will go away.
In the Haynes book, replacing ball joints doesn't "seem" insanely difficult unless you run into trouble getting the old ones out, which I have found on other posts on this Forum.
Any tips or advice to offer before I go farther and starting tearing into this ball joint thing?
PS: I have done my own car work for the past 25 years, but never replaced ball joints.
PPS: Also posted this on the Troubleshooting forum.
