instigator311

This is my sob story...In February of '04 I purchased a 2001 v6 with 17,500 miles, the first spring I had it the front end started to make a rattling and screetching sound all the time, like when i turned, braked, went over bumps, or just drove down the road, I took it back to the dealership and they said the T-rods had rusted because the original owner didn't drive it enough and moisture built up on them, so they were replaced and it cost me nothing because of my warranty.
Ok, now fast forward a year later, to spring '05, and the passenger side front end starts to make the same noise, and sure enough, it's another T-rod, it didn't rust this time, they said something about not being able to grease them anymore could possibly be the problem, but whatever it was they had to replace that T-rod again. While that T-rod was being installed the mechanic informed me that my brakes needed to be changed, so I had him change the brakes. So then for a couple weeks everything was fine again until one day I noticed a constant squeaking noise that came from the front passenger side wheel, it got louder and louder until I could hear it with the windows up and the AC and Mach 460 at full blast. I took it right away to the Ford dealership again and they took the car in right away and they said something about a spring on the brake came loose. They fixed that and now a couple weeks later that same brake is squeaking a lot when I brake. I have no grudges with Ford or the Mustang for these problems, but I was just wondering if anybody else out there had any similar problems with their T-rods or brakes, and if anybody had any advice or ideas to prevent my T-rods from needing to be replaced again next spring or in the future, considering warranties don't last forever. So can anybody help? Thanks!

jgsmuzzy

After reading that, I think my t-rods might need replacing! I was trying to pin down what the noise was...kind of like a creaking / scratching noise from the front drivers side. No problems with the brakes though, although I do them myself.

DanS.02GT

An easy way to tell if the noise is coming from the outer tie rod ends is to crawl under the car and rotate the tie rod back and forth with a pair of vise grips or channel locks. If it squeaks, there's your problem. The tie rod ends aren't all that difficult to replace for the do-it-yourselfer, but the car will need an alignment afterwards.

Replacement tie rod ends are available with grease fittings, so they can be periodically lubricated and shouldn't cause a problem again.

I'm not sure why the sealed chassis bits seem to be such a problem for Ford, and other American carmakers for that matter, to get right. The Japanese have been using them for decades, and rarely have problems. Squeaky and/or loose tie rod ends and ball joints seem to be practically an epidemic in American cars, though. And while squeaky is annoying, loose can be downright dangerous.