seems like a bumping sound from the front end of my car might be related to the control arm bushings. hit or miss? haha.

 

could be, also could be a borken sway bar end link (that is what mine was :P )

 

When does it bump??? under acceleration, braking, cornering, shifting gears?

My bad control arm bushings caused some bumping sounds and the car to dart in strange directions when the auto tranny shifted.

 

I've got a weird clunking sound from the front left it seems, have been trying to diagnose for years. Conditions that causes it: sometimes during application of throttle after engine braking, or engine braking after throttle. When going over bumps with the left front wheel, seems throttle position sensitive.

I know it's not the upper strut mount or the strut dampers themselves, because I've changed them all out with new and the problem didn't go away. I tested the balljoints and couldn't get them to move. The steering doesn't wander around or anything AFAIK or can tell. I know it's not the swaybar, because I installed some suspension techniques swaybars on there, which didn't fix the noise. And then even went as far as to get brand new endlink set and install those, and that didn't fix the noise either. All I can say is I guess you're not the only 3rd gen max driver with suspension clunking noise issues.