Throw (be gentle) a pry bar between the control arm and the steering knuckle and see if you manage to get any vertical play. Regarding shaking the tire, there is no use in doing so simply up and down. You would have noticed the ball joint problem long before now if you were actually able to reach the conclusion simply from that. However, if you can put a torque on the wheel around the axis from front to back of the car, in other words pushing in on the top and pulling out on the bottom and vise versa, and it moves noticeably, your wheel bearing has a problem.

I have a noise problem from the front suspension as well. Eliminated wheel bearings, replaced ball joints and sway bar links, and checked the suspension bushings, which led me to determine that my problem is the Sensen struts I installed in the vehicle. Nothing I can do about it, so I'm just waiting to buy better struts.

Good luck,
Austin

 

Well, prying on the ball joints showed no play. I'm thinking more about the upper strut bearing. Not sure how to test that in place, but will replace when/if new struts go in.

 

The upper strut mount is very robust--it wouldn't be my first, second or third guess, unless you can isolate the knock to "high up" on the fender vs. originating under/forward of your feet. Neither would the lower ball joint, inner tie-rod or outer tie rod be where I'd start. Eliminate the following first:

If you have 130k+ miles, it may be the strut proper; the bushing/seal in the tube wears enough that the strut rod rattles against it on rough terrain. Could also be sway links (rod with a ball joint on either end).

 

The upper strut mount is very robust--it wouldn't be my first, second or third guess, unless you can isolate the knock to "high up" on the fender vs. originating under/forward of your feet. Neither would the lower ball joint, inner tie-rod or outer tie rod be where I'd start. Eliminate the following first:

If you have 130k+ miles, it may be the strut proper; the bushing/seal in the tube wears enough that the strut rod rattles against it on rough terrain. Could also be sway links (rod with a ball joint on either end).

+1 on what Av says.......:grin:

 

OK, i'm going with the flow here. At 131k miles and have the front struts on the replace schedule.

 

If you go with Quick Strut Complete Assembly, like Monroe or Unity or other, please report back with a review. Lots of guys want to know since these have only recently been available for the earlier HL's. Haya....:thanks: