click sound from front shock area

[nize]

when i make a sudden left turn and the front-passenger shock+wheel gets loaded i hear a single 'CLICK' sound. this doesn't happen when i make a sudden right turn.

i've tried parking the car and pushing down (and bouncing) the shock area but the noise doesn't occur. it seems it only occurs when making sudden left turns.

any idea what this could be? thanks in advance.

[Moneyguy1]

the bearing on the top of the strut will do this.

[bryanthompson]

mine does the same thing. Check out your motor mounts and swaybar bushings. I bet they're shot.

[nize]

someone else was telling me it could be the ball joint. is that another possibility?

[nize]

okay i jacked up the car and got under it. found the problem is the inner sway bar bushing on the passenger side had deteriorated and fallen out. the clicking was caused by the sway bar rubbing/grinding against the metal clamp.

apparantly this is a common problem with 944's because of the location of the power steering reservoir, it leaks power steering fluid in that area which accelerates this problem.

[Frank B]

Ball joint would be my first guess and worst nightmare, if they snap.. you're ghost riding.

[bryanthompson]

Also during an oil change, it's common to drip oil from the filter onto those, so I don' tknow if that would affect the wear on that bushing much. When you replace yours, take pics if you can yaay for pictures

[nize]

ah yeah, the oil filter does lie directly above this area. i didn't take any photos (it's a pretty simple procedure) but i did learn that you have to remove the mounts on both sides of the swaybar in order to replace one side, because the whole thing is one solid piece of metal.

pelican does have a detail blowup diagram;

[nize]

btw, can anyone post a photo or a diagram of exactly where the ball joint is located and how to check if it's okay?

i know it's on the control arm, but where?

also, i've read/heard that if the ball joint goes bad you'll have to replace the whole control arm (like $700 just for the part). is this true? why can't you just replace the ball joint?

[bryanthompson]

On earlies, you can replace the abll joints separately, but on laters you have to replace the whole control arm.

http://www.connact.com/~kgross/FAQ/944faqca.html

How do you know if you need to replace your ball joints/control arms?

There is a rubber boot that encloses the joint; inspect the boot for cracks or other damage. Another sign is clunking in the left or right front suspension; it starts off very subtle but will get worse as time goes on. I damaged my left ball joint when I hit a pot hole, it hit real hard!

You can also check for free-play in the ball joint. Use a large pair of pipe wrench pliers (commonly called "channel lock pliers"). Put the upper jaw on the steering knuckle tab into which the ball stud is inserted. Put the lower jaw of the pliers on the underside of the control arm. Compress the pliers. If you see more than roughly a millimeter of play, the ball joint requires replacement. (Many manufacturers publish specifications for allowed play in ball joints. Unfortunately Porsche does not.)

You cannot measure fatigue or damage to the ball joint stud. It would be possible to check it using a dye penetrant test, but this is beyond most shade tree mechanics' abilities. The only realistic approach to this problem is probably automatic replacement as some service interval, perhaps 100,000 miles for street-only cars, 50,000 miles for track cars.