1996 Ford Ranger

1996 FORD RANGER
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JLVIPER146
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
1996 Ford Ranger, 144,000 miles, stick shift. Out of nowhere, my truck starting making weird noises and I have noticed that is off balance--the driver's side of the truck is much lower than the passenger side. When I go over bumps it makes loud cracking-type sounds, almost as if it sounds like something is rattling around in the bed of my truck. I know my back bumper isn't 100% secure, but it has been like that for a long time and these sounds just started today. It is most noticeable when I go over bumps or am on rough roads. When I go over speed bumps, when the back tires go over the speed bump is when the sound seems the worse, that cracking/creakin type sound, and then it goes away until I go over another sort of rough patch of road/bumps. Also, since the sounds started, it seems to be pulling even harder to the right when I drive, especially when I am on the highway going 70+ mph. The alignment was off before this, but now it is an even more annoying/harder pull to the right.

I am assuming this is some sort of suspension problem? I scheduled an appt. to take it in on Friday, any ideas as to what the problem is/how much it should cost to fix?
Oct 31, 2007 at 2:40 PM
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BLACKOP555
  • CAR REPAIR CONTRIBUTOR
  • 10,386 POSTS
sounds like suspention to me, cant relaly tell you whats wrong without seeing it myself just compare the parts of the passanger to theparts of the driver side of suspension. check the leaf springs.
Oct 31, 2007 at 7:27 PM
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