indymustanggt & mbkinter , sorry on the delay in getting back to you guys. Just let me know what would be good for you. I usually get off work by 4:30. If the weekend is better let me know. Saturday preferably, I never miss the Colts games.

Geist has a lot of good roads to test the cars on.

Steve
sjenkins49@sbcglobal.net

 

sjenkins49 - Saturday is fine with me, although it may be raining. I will send you an email. Maybe mbkinter can make it also.

Bob
rporterfie@aol.com

 

For some reason I can't reply to posts.

 

Ok, now it seems to work>
Help, I'm going insane with this issue!!
Friday I took the car to a Firestone dealer, and they found movement in both front wheels. I witnessed the wheels both move a considerable amount - 1/16" to 1/8", and it also made the metalic clunk I have been complaining about. Their diagnosis - loose lower ball joints.

I drove straight to the Ford dealer. Put in on the rack and you guessed it - absolutely no movement in the wheels. This has happened before. It just seems that when the weight is taken of the front, something resets to where it shoud be and the car steers normally and has no clunk for a time. That is what happened when I left the dealer.

Today the erratic steering and noise returned. Jacked it up and I could move the wheel in and out about the same distance as on Friday. Took the wheel off and discovered that by pushing side to side and top to bottom on the disc, the disc assembly itself moves the same distance as on Friday and reproduces the metalic noise - it seems to be contacting the wheel hub behind the dust shield (at least it looks like a dust shield).

Today I don't know if it is the ball joints at all, especially since the dealer could not get them to move or separate with a pry bar. But both front discs seem to be very loose.

So I have several questions
1. Are the discs permitted to have any lateral movement at all with the wheel off?
2. What holds the disc to the rest of the assembly? Is it possible some bearing or something has gone bad on both the left and right at the same time?

This has been an issue since 7,000 miles. Now up to 21,000 and it is still not resolved. This was a very early build car - I bought it in late Oct 2004. This car just does not handle/steer like a Mustang should. I've had 3 and this is the worst for steering. If it's no fun to drive I might just as well sell it and buy an Escape - my wife has an Escape and the steering is far superior to my Mustang. I worked at Ford Motor for 28 years, the last 18 years in Engineering Change Control for steering columns and rack & pinion gears (including the steering gear on Mustangs), and poor steering issues on Fords just send me thru the roof. At least this isn't steering gear related.

Thanks for your advice/suggestions/opinions on this issue.
Bob

 

Same issue here. Hope somebody finds the problem soon.

indymustanggt, The discs are free to move when the wheel is off. Once your lug nuts are tightened the disc is tight.

I tried the loose fender well skirt but nothing loose.

I have removed my front sway bar so that's not the problem with mine either.

 

1200 miles on my 06. No problems.

 

At last - took my GT back to the dealer today and jacked it up in his parking lot. Took the front end tech out and showed him how the wheels moved and clunk. They agreed both front lower ball joints are bad. They will order parts and let me know when they arrive. I update this thread when the new ball joints are installed.
I think they have probably been defective since day one.

 

The dealer replaced both lower control arms yesterday under warranty. The ball joints themselves are not replaceable, they had to replace the entire control arm.
The issue seems to be fixed - no following every minor rut in the road, etc. The car steers like it should now. Also, the clunk in the front end (what this thread was all about) is gone.
So if Ford tells you it is the shock valve and "they all do it", check your ball joints - that is apparently what caused my noise.