One of my front end noises turned out to be a "close call". This happened a while back. Suddenly my Winnies front end had some steering looseness .. it was weird as occasionally the steering wheel would have an fixed offset of approx 20 degrees, and then this offset would disappear. But never would the steering feel as tight as it should. I inspected several times, and when I finally saw the problem I thought "how did I miss this?".
The rear cross member of the subframe supports the steering rack, and there are bent metal supports at each end that support the sway bar bearings. In my case the left end of this crossmember, several inches of weld, had broken. The left end of the rack and sway bar were still tied together ... but both together loose from the subframe. Occasionally the loose end would hand-up /stick about 1/2" inch out of location (this caused the offset). Dangerous! If the other end, now under some added stress, had broken ... well, who knows?
Mind you, this on a vehicle that is totally free from corrosion and rust.