Rep Power: 0

94 dx 230xxx.

left front is groaning when i hit bumps. It does also during turns while hitting a bump, however not exclusively when I'm turning. Its a lower pitch groan, not a squeak.

What are common causes of such groans in the front end. I cant reproduce it by bouncing the front end while stationary. There is no play when the front end is supported on stands and lateral force applied to the wheel (ball joint/tie rod test...).

recent (within the last year) repairs: both drive shafts, both lower ball joints, outter tie rods, alignment and re-greased rack.

I'm considering replacing the upper ball joint (entire control arm) and full shock assembly.

I don't have a lot of spare cash to do the job so i would like to do the absolute minimum.

 
Rep Power: 313

Start by lubricating your current suspension setup, if that doesnt help take it to a shop and get it diagnosed. The 60 dollars you spend for them to tell you the problem could save you hundreds in parts. Unless of course you can diagnose it yourself.

 
Rep Power: 0

I had the same thing happen on my car, it turned out to be my upper control arm, I sprayed some wd40 on the bolts and the groaning stopped

 
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I'll post back, i ended up getting a new shock assembly and upper control arm with ball joint to replace the drivers side, and just an upper ball joint for the passenger side. I'm going to wait a couple weeks to replace the passenger side shock for the next paycheck.

 
Rep Power: 285

Can I ask why you replaced the entire upper control arm?

Was it damaged?

 
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Make sure to use a torque wrench and torque your upper control arm to spec, didnt do that the first time and took me a while to figure out why the car felt like it wasnt handling properly

 
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the price difference was small enough that i thought i would try to eliminate the noise in the small chance that it is the uca mounts. I should have done the same on the passenger side but that is another story.

I've since come to the conclusion that its my lower ball joint on the drives side lower. It is hardly a year old, but thats what you get with autozone cr@p. Lesson learned, buy it right the first time and avoid hassle later.

the only other options for surce of noise is the lower control arm and the cv joint.