Clunking in the front end

I am having an issue with clunking on my front end. It started on the passenger side and now moved to the driver side. This made me believe that it was the sway bar end links as the sway bar is the only suspension part that connects both passenger and driver side. I replaced both sides and thought that had fixed the issue but turned out it was not it. Went back to the store and bought a tension strut(lower control arm. Everyone calls this part something different i noticed. It is the part that has the ball joint included.) I have done all kinds of readings about what the issues can be. Some people fix it with a sway bar end link, some fix it with the the tension strut, others with a new hub. Does anyone have an idea what they think it could be, or had this issue and been able to find the issue and fix it? I took it to the dealer to take a look at it and they said it was the strut it self. However they said they they were not sure so their "best guess is it is the strut." I inspected the strut and it looks to be in good condition. If the strut went bad their would be oil everywhere and i think that the clunking would be much worse.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Dealer is more than likely full of shit. Adam (Moparcharger) is our resident front end specialist. Hopefully he will see this and chime in.

Adam has his number posted in this thread....http://www.chicagolandareamodernmopars.com/t7034-front-end-clunking

Send him a text

Usually a couple things will cause the dreaded clunk over bumps. It's 9 times out of 10, one or all three of these things. Tension struts (lower control arms), tie rods, or (which I've seen ALOT lately) believe it or not the sway bar bushings. If you want it looked at lemme know man

Moparcharger07 wrote:

Usually a couple things will cause the dreaded clunk over bumps. It's 9 times out of 10, one or all three of these things. Tension struts (lower control arms), tie rods, or (which I've seen ALOT lately) believe it or not the sway bar bushings. If you want it looked at lemme know man

I have replaced the sway bar end links on both sides and the tension strut on the passenger side. When you say sway bar bushings, do you mean the bushings that actualy hold the sway bar to the body/frame itself?

My issue with the noise is that the passenger started first and then after a period of time it started to happen on the driver side. It appears to me that, the noises would be related. I doubt that both ball joints would go dead right around the same time. It is possible, but i find the chances to be slim. Is a sway bar bushing install pretty straight forward? Remove sway bar end links, drop sway bar, replace bushing, repeat in reverse?

I would like to have someone look at it, but im heading home this weekend to work on the vehicle. Also looking to meet more mopar people as well. I moved to Chicago a few years back, but havnt been able to make it to a lot of car shows or swap meets. I know more about the older mopars than the newer ones.

Yeah the mounts for the bar to frame...It's real easy, You dont have to take off the links, just remove the heat shields on the bar bushing brackets, then remove the lower bracket bolts, and loosen the top bracket bolts enough to swing the brackets up, then lower the bar, and take off the worn out bushings, slip the new bushings on and install in the reverse order.

Moparcharger07 wrote:

Yeah the mounts for the bar to frame...It's real easy, You dont have to take off the links, just remove the heat shields on the bar bushing brackets, then remove the lower bracket bolts, and loosen the top bracket bolts enough to swing the brackets up, then lower the bar, and take off the worn out bushings, slip the new bushings on and install in the reverse order.

Took me all of 20 minutes to do when I had my Charger, really simple

I did my bushings as well it was simple but probably took me 20 minutes to get the driver's side heat shield bolt started... awkward angle on that one

Adam replaced my tension struts (and brakes too) he's the man for front end work. I like to pretend I'm handy and can do stuff like sparkplugs but for real stuff I leave it to the pros in the know.

I replaced it this weekend. Went really easy. I went with the moog bushings. It has been so long since the car sounded right i think it fixed it. Or at least i hope. that sound sucks!

Moog is the way to go