wanted33

That's the way it supposed to work. Congrats, seems like you have a very good service dept.

Plim

After a long road trip from San Jose, California, to Las Vegas and back, I heard the "thud" noise again, when I drove my car into my own driveway .... amazing, because I hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary during the entire trip.

So the next day, a senior mechanic, drove with me, while I was going in and out of driveways near the dealership. He understood the problem.
Today I picked up my car, and up until now I have not been able to replicate the "thud" sound anymore. :-)

What caused the problem?
When the lower control arms where replaced, all the suspension parts had to be torqued down. Apparently, that needs to be done in a certain order. If the order in which it is done, is not correct, the suspension can bind under certain circumstances (full turn of the steering wheel, while going up a driveway). When the suspension compresses or decompresses past the bind, the "thud" is heard.

How did they fix it?
loosen all the bolts on the suspension and re torque them in the correct order.
And re-check alignment after that. => problem fixed!

Hopefully this helps someone else here on the forum.

werdna65

I can't believe Nobody has thought of this simple Fix. We used to have people come in the shop for the very same reason and we would oil them. Here's how we did it, every balljoint has a rubber boot on the top and we had a grease needle we would make a hole with it and oil the joint, a little does it, and super glue closes the hole. Noise is gone, or the balljoint is bad, that easy.

Tominkc

I had my front end make alot of noise when hitting speed bumps of turning in to a drive way!! I took if to my dealer 3 times, the second time the tech rode with me he thought it was the front control arms but when looking at them they looked ok!! But the noise was always there!! So they put it on a scope that would pin point the noise!! It was the controls arms !! It seamed that the are to close to the headers and would get hot and that is when they started to make noise
They also sad that that had a bunch of bad control arms from the factory so they changed them out and no more problems and that's been over a year ago!!

Trumpetlon

My first complaint was solved that way....until I drove in the rain. The noise came right back. I had the dealership show me the control arms they took off of my car and the bushings were dry, cracked and deformed. No amount of oil or grease would fix that. My fingers are crossed that I don't have to deal with this issue again. So far so good...

wanted33

An update on the Wifey's car. The Customer Service in my area has been contacted, and I am waiting on his call. As I said previously I don't want to throw parts at the car, and the squeak/groan return in a few days. I don't want to be **** about his, but it shouldn't make any noise. So, I'll let ya'll know how things go as we move up the food chain of Ford.

Tominkc

I took mine in twice for the same reason!! After the second time the tech told me that the reason they go out is that they get hot from the exhaust and makes the dry out and start making noise!! He made me a little plate to go between the CA's and exhaust and it stopped making noise and that's been over a year now!!!

Z.r.q Othman

What did the dealer change? Front control arm bushing? Both sides? I wonder.. or top mount suspension?