Clunk In Front End 2001Xc70

[Guest robert alexander]

Getting this clunk in the front end over bumps. I pull the tires off and notice the nuts that should hold the steering knuckle to the shock are missing!

The bolts are still there, thats all holding the wheel on right now.

So my question is this, are those nuts supposed to be replaced with new ones when they are removed?

Or do you just torque the old ones and hope they hold.

We had the control arm bushings replaced last year and an alignment. Does the alignment shop loosen those to align the tires

or is it the mechanics fault for either not replacing them or correctly torqueing the nuts.

I am really not happy that we could have had a very bad accident due to this.

thanks for info on this before I call the shop on Monday

[SomeGuy]

For a lot of the bolts in that area I just like to replace them if I have them off, especially if they're as old as the car. Reason being that two years ago, after replacing the ball joints on my 850 and torquing them down properly and checking them after 200 miles or so, 1500 miles later one of the bolts holding the ball joint it somehow fell out while I was driving. Yep, it was very fun... wheel came completely off in a parking lot, busting up my fender and sideskirt, destroying my axle, lucky I wasnt driving faster when it happened...

I dont know about it being your mechanics fault but usually you can tell if the bolts and nuts are still good or not. For me from now on though, Im always replacing them.