I have replaced front springs and shocks with the Tokico Illuminus and Tokico springs. Since I have done this I have had a popping noise in the front end at very low speeds, ie in and out of the driveway. I thought the ball joints were bad, so I replaced the lower arms, including the bushings. I still get the noise. I checked the sway bar links and they are good. Could this be from the upper strut mounts? I did not replace them because the rubber was in good shape. Any ideas?

Thanks,
neilca

 

I'f your getting the popping noise at slow speeds, like in & out of your driveway than it's your swaybar end links! I'f you've changed everything else but those, I suggest you change those also.

 

I went through this and after changing struts, strut bearings, and everything else (ball joints, etc) it ended up being the rack.

Nobody could find this (This was happening for a year or more) until I went to a shop that did racks.

Changed that out and the suspension is perfect - even though I had changed other parts, nothing made the BIG difference until the rack change.

 

Stupid question, but what exactly is a rack? How much did it cost to fix it?

 

Powersteering rack. They aren't the cheapest things to replace, I've never done one on a Max, but other cars I've done have been a PITA! Figure a good bit of labor on top of 150-200+ for the part, I'd hate to speculate, but I know you'll want to make sure that it IS without a doubt the rack before you replace it.

 

Is there an easy way to tell it is the rack, or do you basically have to replace everything else and figure it out by a process of elimination?