gijimbo007

I have been noticing a distinctive thunking sound when the car travels over bumps of any size. I am trying to determine if my 2001 Taurus has worn strut bearings. But I don't know exactly what to look for.

I have looked at the struts themselves and I don't see signs of oil leakage. So I am assuming the struts are ok.

Would someone tell me what I need to look for to help me determine if I need to replace the strut bearings? If I have overlooked something in trying to determine the thunking sound please send some ideas and I'll look at those too.

The car has about 70k miles on it.

Respectfully,
Jim

shorod

I'm not sure if the 2001 uses the plastic anti-sway bar end links, but if so, you may want to inspect them to see if they are the noise.

As a side note, I was searching for a similar noise on a co-worker's Mazda Protege. He had taken it to a shop for the noise and they told him the noise was caused by bad front struts and gave him a $1200 estimate to do all four struts. He decided to tackle the job himself (with my tools, garage, and help) and bought the struts. When he brought the car over, I was convinced that the noise was not his struts. The struts were not leaking, the car didn't bounce excessively, and when he sat in the car and I tugged away at the sway bar end links, the noise in the cabin seemed identical.

The sway bar end links would need to be ordered, and it was his wife's car, so he decided he wanted to replace the struts anyway. So we did. Even when we had the old struts out and the springs removed, the struts did not compress overly easily and they started to climb back after being fully compressed. Anyway, we got the new struts installed and the noise was gone! Struts were the only part we replaced, and I would have put money on it that they were not bad.

We did not find any loose bolts in the process, etc. I did inspect the strut plates and opened them, they looked fine and did not need new grease.

-Rod

gijimbo007

Thanks Rod. I will look into the anti-sway bar links. I will keep everyone posted once I find the solution. Thank-you once again, Jim

gijimbo007

Hello Rod,

To answer one of your questions, Yes my Taurus has a plastic sway bar links. I replaced both of them and my thunking noise is gone. Thank-You for your help. It only cost my about $63 (Advanced Auto Parts) to fix the problem.

When I had the passenger side off I notice when you pulled on the threaded stud there was a slight popping noise from that joint. It sounded like someone popping their knuckles. This was a definite sign of replacement.

FYI: www.partsamerica.com has good prices too. If the part is the worng part you can return it to Advanced Autoparts. There are other stores the part can be returned too. Simply go to the "returns" section of the website and you can see the other stores the part can be returned too.

Once again, Thank-You for your help.

Jim