Fusion owners, who has had a clunk noise in the front end

[mustangmike6996]

My wife has a 2011 with 41k on the odometer (3 yr 36k warranty). Recently it developed a slight clunk (sounds like a sway bar end link) and squeak (sounds like a dry ball joint)

It occurs mostly after the car sits overnight and goes away within a few miles of driving, or at least mostly goes away.

From what I have been reading, people have replaced racks, struts, ball joints (integrated into the control arms) and much more. I figure that someone here has to have a similar car with a similar issue due to them being so popular. She is in MI and im stationed in NC so I only had a short time to look at the car (about 5 min) everything on the left front (where the noise is coming from) seems to be tight and not noisy.


Any input from personal experience would be awesome!

 

[sofa king]

Yep, ball joints. Wait until winter, it will squeak like a mofo.
You can use a grease needle and fill them with grease, but 41k is low to have this issue.

 

[mustangmike6996]

Yea, I figured, I have a grease gun and needle but wanted some feedback before stabbing dust boots lol.

I guess Id rather have that then the rack tho.

 

[sofa king]

If you trust your wife, or a friend enough, you can put your hand on them and move the car forward/backward a small amount. Thats all it takes on my car to make it creak. Helps to troubleshoot which one or ones are dry. This way your not poking holes in all the ball joints.