Clunk over bumps

[sprucebingsteen]

Hello everyone,
I have a 1998 grand voyager 3,3L , 177,00kms.
I examined the brakes yesterday before and verified I was to replace the pads and rotors. Upon this inspection, I noticed that my sway bar link was broken. Today I replaced both the pads and rotors and the sway bar link on drivers side. Here's the concern, I have noticed that the front end seems clunk loudly now on bumps. I had a solid front end previously and the wife even confirmed that this clunking noise is in fact new. She never heard that before I fixed the brakes.
WHAT DID I DO? By jacking it up and putting it on stands could a ball-joint or tie-rod be damaged? Or with gently prying the lower sway bar down a few inches to get the new one on could i have damaged the bushings?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[earlyrizr]

the sway bar bushings is where i'd look,they are cheap to replace and wear out frequently.If you have 177k and never replaced them now is a good time and as a matter of fact I usually replace both link ends at the same time as the other seems to fail shortly after.vehicles are meant to be jacked up ie: change a tire,oil change, repairs etc.. don't worry about ball joint damage.hope this helps.

[sprucebingsteen]

How in any way could the sway bar bushings be bad between yesterday and today. Yezsterday was quiet as a mouse and today a dinstinctive clunk over bumps? Could I have done anything when I forced the bar down a bit to fit in the bottom of the link? Could it just be a shitty link? I got it from a part store that i have had excellent luck with in past. The car sounded better yesterday with a broken link than it does with a new one.

[Spit]

Chances are that with the sway bar link broken there was no (load) push back on to the sway bar. Now that the link is hooked back up the slop in the bushing is manifesting itself with the clunking.

I would jack it up, and remove the front tires and check the sway bar bushings. You should be able to see the outer surface clearly. Grab the bar and pull on it...you shouldn't have any slop if the bushings are good. I guarantee you that you will. The bushings are supposed to have a completely round center and your's have worn to an oval shape. Chances are that the wear on the bushings contributed to the failure of the link. So I would fixt it right away..There are several good posts on this site for sway bar bushing replacement procedures.

Chuck

[Spit]

Another thought on this...with all the miles you have..I would suggest replacing the passanger side sway bar link too. I'm of the opinion that they are sort of like shoes..replace in pairs.

Chuck

[Riordan3]

I have a 2003 Grand Caravan and just went through the clunk problem in the front end. I had both sway bar links replaced ( passenger and driver side ) plus the bushings for the sway bar in the front. Problem was solved by replacing all of these. My van just turned 100,000 miles and by the way this was the second time around for the sway bar links having to be replaced. The bushings were original up to this point. Seems this is a problem area for the Caravan. If you have almost twice as many miles as me, consider you got your money's worth. Hope this helps you out. I had this work done at the dealership because my company paid for the work ( its a company car ).

[sprucebingsteen]

Thanks to all ! I will change the passenger side link and attempt the bushings. What is a link on the bushing replacement. The driver side looks to be easy to get at , the passenger looks to be more obstructed.

[Spit]

There is a good step by step on the Caravan forum submitted by ArticCatBill
search using "Sway Bar Bushing Replacement" as your search terms.