[Gu3nth]

Hey everyone! I feel like I’ve been chasing this mysterious “clunk” noise forever. Figured it was finally time to try posting in here to see if anyone has ideas. I have a 2002 AWD. In most driving conditions, it drives fine and there’s no issues. I only hear the noise when going up into a driveway or something similar.

I’ve had the van in the shop twice recently for this. The first time they replaced ball joints, which seemed to make a bit of an improvement. The second time they noticed that the sway bar was broken and installed a new one. My van is still making the noise though, and I just can’t figure out what it would be. I realize this is an incredibly vague question, but is there anything I can check myself at home to figure this out?

 

[Mmusicman]

1st thing I'd guess would be ball-joints (you've already replaced)
2nd thing I'd guess would be sway-bar bushings (you've already replaced)
3rd thing I'd guess would be control arm bushings (usually visual)
4th thing I'd guess might be idler arms.

This assumes all the rest of your steering components are good.
This also assumes all your control arms are tight against the frame.

Did they actually replace ALL 4 ball-joints?
That would be quite a big job.. but ball-joints are always the most likely culprit for front end clunk. You might consider re-checking all of them.

Let's also assume it's not related to brakes? (front or rear)

One more thing..
AWD's can have binding issues in parking lots and might cause a clunk if so.

 

[Gu3nth]

Thanks for the reply! I’ll check the paperwork to see exactly how many ball joints were replaced, I don’t remember offhand. I’ll post an update when I find it.

What would I be looking for when checking the control arms and idler arms? I have noticed some slight binding when doing tight parking lot turns, so I have been looking up how to replace the transfer case fluid. It certainly looks easy enough to do and that’s on my to do list.

 

[gwd]

Here is how a northern salt rusted front end looks like. You can see all the basic parts that Mmusicman mentioned.

 

[dchan51360]

put the vehicle up on jack stands or a lift. (leaving the front end hanging) and start wiggling parts...

I've had this where it seems fine except when transitioning over a speed bump or driveway/sidewalk or something like this. sitting on the ground shaking the front wheels and unable to find anything. It's possible the the weight of the vehicle is preloading the joints that are making the noise so they don't go "clunk" unless you go over a bump which may be "unloading" the joint causing the "clunk"

Turns out in my case, one of the bushings had gotten loose enough that it would go clunk every time it moved away from having weight on it.

Since there was so much other wear and tear under the front end when I did the repair, however, I went ahead and replaced all the ball joints and bushings at the same time. So much nicer!