Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Clunking when going over speed bumps

For the few months I've had the car, I noticed a clunking (pretty sure pass. side only) when:

-taking speed bumps a little fast
-going in and out of the garage (over the edge/lip near the garage door)

I initially chalked it up to a bad strut, however I just installed new struts and springs and I still have the clunking. Upon searching the forums, it kinda sounds like it could be an inner cv joint issue, but those seem more prone to clicking. This feels more like slop in the driveline, like a bad u-joint might feel like.

With these symptoms, would you suggest giving a look at the cv joints? What would a bad one look like? Anything else I should look at instead?

Thanks,
Randy

Front or rear ? If it's the rear, it's probably a sway bar link.

front right

Easiest fix in the world if it's the sway bar end links. O'Reilly, Autozone, etc.. have them.

You would never know they're bad, but when they are, they clunk over small bumps like crazy and give the sound of a broken or bad strut.

Take the front wheel off (either one) look at the sway bar end. See that link? That little part is most likely the cause.

Easy to fix, you'll need two wrenches, and don't let the rubber parts twist..

Good luck!

If you change it, you'll want to use a hydraulic jack. Put a block or something under the front tire (rotor). Once you are ready to put the new link on do the top first, then lower the car so that the block pushes against the rotor, that allows the lower A-Arm to come up enough that the bottom part of the link will fit in its spot. Tighten (don't twist that rubber grommet!) and there you go.

Once you see it, you'll think "How in the world can this damn part make so much noise?"

Hope it's that part.

Good luck

Heck, I'll try it. Always good to start with cheap and easy!

It sounds like the control arm bushing is shot. I had this the clunk sound on my car mostly when I went in and out of driveways. When I replaced mine, I had to get the complete control arm from Ford, but I seem to remember reading that you can now get atermarket bushings only from BAT but I'm not sure about this.

Had the same clunking noise in mine, maybe not the same noise but it was a lover contorl arm bushing. Unfortuately you can't just change the bushing you have to replace the the whole arm. Both sides done here in Canada for $400 labor parts and taxes in, I would reccomend doing both. If you decide to do the bad one there is an easier side and a hard side, if your lucky your might be the easier side, passenger side if I remember correctly, seemed like too much of a PITA to do myself..

do those links first....