Our Fusion has developed a squeak (and clunk sometimes) in the passenger's side front wheel area. When making low-speed maneuvers, or if I just rock the wheel back and forth while still, I hear a squeak coming from that area. Truthfully, it sounds like a bad ball joint. So I pull the wheel off and inspect all boots and connections, and everything looks good, All joints are also nice and tight. Oddly enough, rocking the wheel back and forth while the wheel is off the ground DOES NOT create the noise; so the noise is dependent on load being on that corner. The only thing I could find, potentially, is that the sway bar link on that side moves quite easily. There is no play, and the boots are in good shape, but I can swivel it quite easily. The other side (which does not make noise), can also be swiveled, but it is tighter. I also hear an occasional clunk at low speeds when going over bumps; I assume these problems are related, since they both started on the same day. The squeak also occurs over bumps Any ideas? My old Focus had bad sway bar links which also had no play while installed in the car, but once they came out they flopped around like mad.
FWIW, the sway bar links on the front end are the dual ball joint type, not the bushing type or bolt pass-through type.
FWIW, the sway bar links on the front end are the dual ball joint type, not the bushing type or bolt pass-through type.
