both my LHS and RHS rack ends are shagged. I get a real loud groinching sound from both suspensions struts going over bumps and along the road, are the tie rods responsible for the noise ? Had new struts put in already. ideas

If your not sure the rack ends are worn simply drive the car onto some ramps and cut the cable tie on the inner of the rack boots and peel them back anough to see the rack end. Have someone start the car and move the steering wheel back and forth while you look for any play in the rack end joint. If they are worn they are not that hard to replace or that expansive, i got a set for $41 from Bursons in Melbourne. Ford wanted $54 each!! The only pain in the a** bit is the washer that locks the joint on to the rack has to be bent back to remove then bent back again to lock it back in. If the Rack ends are not worn check the sway bar doesnt have worn D bushes that may cause it hit against he chassis, also make sure the front wheel bearings are not lose.

mm could be the ball joints... as the noises are when u are going over bumps

the tie rod ends ( on each end of the rack )
should make a noise when you are tunring..

I thought I had ball joint noise ... but it was the steering rack .... which was dying ... replaced the entire rack and all was good ... clunks and rattles and graunching all gone now.

Mine was making clunk noises over bumps before ... and now it's not.

its definetly a groinching noise over all bumps, from left and right sides, somehwere in the suspensions each side i guess.. its loud and annoying. so i would say its not the rack ends. now i know exactly what they are..

On an EL, go for the sway bar mount rubbers first. Remove them and kube with rubber grease. 99% of these types of noises come from there. The other place to look at is the upper control arm inner bushes. With the wheel off, unbolt and separate the upper ball joint from the upper arm. Move the arm up and down to check for the noise. Sometimes lubricating the bushes will fix it, but more often than not the bush moves inside the mount and you get that graunching sound. This seems to happen more often with the replacement K mac type bushes used with shims to give camber and caster adjustment. If you are replacing the bushes make sure you know if they are genuine, k mac, pedders, nolathane etc as the outside diameters differ.