Odd Thumping coming from the left front *solved

[Glassjaw]

Hello all. I just bought a 2002 Chevy Crew cab last week, and i absolutly love it. its got pretty much everything offered as options, 65k miles. the previous owner was from new york, had it rustproofed very well, the truck is damn near immaculate. My boss who happens to be my fiancces cousin, found it and drove it for me and then i bought it sight unseen. It needed a ball joint on the passenger side. off to the shop it went. Brand new ball joint, done by his mechanic who he says is a reputable guy. so is his alignment shop he sends everything too.

Heres what ive noticed..... i noticed the thumping the day after i got it. When you hit the brakes it will do it but if you turn the wheel and hit the brakes kinda hard itll do it worse. It kinda sounds like a bad ball joint but driving down the road it wont do it at all. The mechanic checked everything over, and sent it back to the aligment shop, they went over everything and made sure it was all tight.

Could it be the stabilizer bushings? stabilizer end link? maybe a loose caliper? I know a little about trucks but im no "mechanic" by any means. any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

[HenryJ]

Lube the torsion bar sockets. Check the torsion bar mount dogbones. Look for a loose a-arm bolt. Make sure the shock is tight. Check for a broken motor mount.
Mine had the EGR tube bumping the pinch weld at the firewall. That was a tough one to find.
That will give you a few things to check.

[Glassjaw]

i will check tomorrow after work. ive been working alot lately and jmust havent really had time to check. thankfully i drive about 8 miles to work. but every time i hear that noise it makes me cringe. i went and bought a grease gun and some grease along with the 90 degree fittings before the auto parts store closed. thankfully i read some of the other post to know what i was getting into. Thanks for the help. ill post back if the grease takes care of it.

[HenryJ]

You will need some spray grease for the torsion bar sockets. GM SuperLube is good stuff. Many places use aerosol white grease. Any good lubricant that does not evaporate or cut will work.

[Glassjaw]

One of the Stabilizer bar end links was broken, i replaced both of them and the thumping stopped. Im not exactly sure how the mechanic and the alignment shop missed that. i replaced them with MOOG end links. front end seems alittle tighter than it was before. Thanks for the info on the torsion bars also! I will make sure everything stays properly greased so the truck last a long time. I absolutly love this truck!!

[F9K9]

Glassjaw, why don't you take the time to fill out your profile? You might have someone nearby that can lend a hand or, you can help him/her?

[saab9k]

One of the Stabilizer bar end links was broken, i replaced both of them and the thumping stopped. Im not exactly sure how the mechanic and the alignment shop missed that. i replaced them with MOOG end links. front end seems alittle tighter than it was before. Thanks for the info on the torsion bars also! I will make sure everything stays properly greased so the truck last a long time. I absolutly love this truck!!

always remember 50% is from the bottom of the class

[Glassjaw]

so the thumping is back, i had a friend look under the truck at the a arm while i pumped the brakes in drive and the control arm he said moves a little. im assuming the bushing is bad since the bolts were tight. is this normal? how hard are the bushings to replace? this is the first time ive ever had to replace the a arm bushings in anything. advance auto has them for 10 bucks but ill probly stick with moog ones for 22 each just to be safe. has anyone else had this problem?

[F9K9]

Many have had to replace the bushings. It's not hard but, that is dependent on your mechanical ability. Moog was once the standard that others tried to achieve. They have gone downhill in the last few years and do not live up to that reputation now. It's basically a crap shoot on the differences in brands, at the moment.

[Glassjaw]

I figured moog would be better since ive heard good things about them. Personally Ive used Energy suspensions bushings on my honda. But that was years ago. i havent had to replace any bushings on my Saturn tho.

Has anyone said of any problems after the bushings have been replaced? Seeing that this was a common problem with alot of these trucks you would figure gm would want to take care of it via recall or fixed them before they rolled out of the plant.

[JaVeRo]

I have had good service from the Energy Suspension bushings on the lower control arm. The uppers do not (or did not) come with sleeves so I had to reuse the old sleeves and that didn't work out so well. The sleeve would slip about an eighth inch on the bushing. I now have the moog thermoplastic on the upper control arms and the Energy Suspension on the lower. It's the best I have come up with.

James

[Glassjaw]

have you had any problem since installing the new bushings?

[JaVeRo]

have you had any problem since installing the new bushings?

None that relate to the bushings

The truck has 180k miles on it running a mail route. It's about to fall apart.

But the A-arm bushings are still good.

James

[Glassjaw]

OK. I feel like an idiot. Me and my boss were taking it to the shop on monday and not running it all weekend when he said "let me see if i can see anything in there, probly not becuase you know more about cars than i do but what the hell." so we sat in the parking lot at the warehouse getting ready to leave and he says the lower control arm isnt moving at all. but he can see the wheel jerking a bit when i hit the brakes. "Can you see the upper control arm if i turn the wheel all the way to lock?" he said he could see the back of the upper control arm. So i did the same thing. he grabbed ahold of the nut holding it in and IT TWISTED OFF IN HIS HAND. the nut was only finger tight!!!! ive since tightened the crap out of it and havent heard the thump, or felt any kind of wheel play at all. I dunno how it happened but im glad we found it. i almost put brand new bushing on the lower control arms on both sides. Saved me about 500 bucks total for the parts and labor. Let alone a few days without a vehicle until we get the fiancée a new car. UNfortunatly her flavor of the month is a ford focus

[roadrunner]

Sometimes that extra set of eyes is truly invaluable.