Do you have project mu pads?

Oh how I wish mine were this simple...

After ages of living with a front end clunking noise and checking everything (or so I thought) twice, I decided to replace the lower ball joints in the front on principle. There was no indication they were seriously worn, but after a couple of years of this, I was really getting tired of hearing a random thump from the front end (and I mean really random - I could never reproduce it on demand). When I went to remove the old ball joints, I pulled the wire retaining pin from the tie rod end on the passenger's side, put my wrench on it, and it turned without any resistance. I didn't think to retorque the tie rod ends because the body shop who fixed my altercation with a moron was the last to touch it, and it didn't even occur to me they would fail to torque a critical nut.

So, my issue turned out to be just as simple as xaker777's. Loose fastener on a critical piece.

I had new parts and with 160k miles on the old ones, I decided to just replace them since I was already in the air and apart, but I could have just tightened the tie rod nut, put the pin back in it, and been fixed.

Moral of the story - if you have a clunk/thunk/thump/bump noise in your suspension and you can't find anything obviously deteriorated like a bad bushing, check every single nut and bolt for torque. Every...single...one...

Of course I'm kicking myself for not checking the tie rod end two years ago when this started, but I am quite relieved it isn't new hubs or a new steering rack, both of which were on the what to swap next if the ball joints (cheapest option) didn't fix me. I am still thinking new hubs are in order purely from age, use, and mileage, but they're not an imperative to solve an irritating noise. Also FWIW, I had a weird noise on deceleration between 35 mph and 30 mph that sounded like a clicking noise in the cabin. I had attributed it to the kid's new booster seat I installed, but now that the tie rod end is properly tightened, the noise has ceased. I'm really shocked this didn't obviously impact tire wear.

Alignment followed immediately today, and although the car drove straight, stopped straight, and didn't drift, the toe in the front was considerably off, and it felt immediately better once properly aligned with -0.04 degrees toe out in front on both side. I really love my car again!

is the -.04 toe on the fronts recommended to resolve the inner tire wear issue with stock LCA bushings?

No, that setting will kill your tires with the OEM bushings. You would want just the opposite. 0.04 degrees toe-in will help with tire life on the OEM bushings. Dynamic toe change with the OEM bushing is pretty dramatic comparatively speaking.

Awesome to hear about the toe setting. I've been using the 0 toe setting that you recommended, but I have the RR LCA bushings. I'm guessing that the -0.04 is what you recommend with the RR bushings?

Just put on a new set of Michelin PS4S and am getting ready to set up my alignment so this will work out great to update the toe settings when I go have that done.

Thx

I wouldn't say I recommend it exactly. I run it because I like the way the car turns with those settings and I know it will have a small impact on tire wear, not a large one. If you want maximum mileage from your set up, stick with zero toe and stiffer LCA bushings. I am OK with front tires lasting 25k instead of 30k.

Ok, so just for clarification I understand you suggest:
.04 front toe for max performance with AM LCA bushings
00 front toe for max tire life with AM LCA bushings

what toe setting would you reccomend running for best performance, and for best tire life for oem LCA bushings?

Corrected for clarity.

Best performance with OEM bushings is 0.0 toe
Best tire life with OEM bushings is 0.04 degrees toe-in.