As I say the bushes wear out but the balljoints have little movement, unlike a steering arm, your control arm has the ball joint built in, the other ball joint in the hub is a pain to get out and I bet it will be fine, mine is after 14 years and 152,000 miles....  Pete

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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
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OK I will go with control arms and endlinks for now. Thanks all.

I just replaced front upper control arms the ones that start in the aft part of the bottom of the front fender liner. That stopped the clunk that occurred under quick hard braking. sort of a thunk you could feel in the steering wheel with a quick stab of the brakes.

The front low speed over bump rattle was cured by replacing drop links (from anti-roll bar down to A arm). The drop links is a quick & easy and cheap fix for that irritating front end rattle/clunking that you get at slower speeds going over bumps.

Thanks. Yes drop links identified as primary/only source of clunk. Parts on the way. No clunk any other time but those slow rolling bumps like speed bumps. I'm still going to try to mount my video camera under there to document just what is happening. I'm sure what northernmonkeyjones says is correct and my control arms are on the way. I'd just like to find a way to visualize the ball joint or bush play while on the vehicle instead of after the part is off.
This brings me to the control arm bolt. RAVE says use new bolt. Are these torque angle bolts? Anyone reuse them?

pretty sure you won't be able to "see" what is causing the noise on the drop links. Just make sure when you put the new ones on you use an 18mm spanner to hold the back side of the joint when you tighten the nut. There are 2 flat sides that fit an 18mm spanner just inside the little rubber boot. If you don't get those real tight you'll have the same clunk. Its a very simple fix to a very irritating noise. I had the car on a lift, but I'm pretty sure you can do it on the ground with the wheels on.

Haylands wrote:

As I say the bushes wear out but the balljoints have little movement, unlike a steering arm, your control arm has the ball joint built in, the other ball joint in the hub is a pain to get out and I bet it will be fine, mine is after 14 years and 152,000 miles....

Update:
Just got back from having the right side control arm, upper ball joint and endlink replaced. There does seem to be play in the old control arm ball joint when bent to its extreme but non of this changes my steering wheel shimmy at 65-70mph. Took just about 1 hour. Air chisel is very helpful. Will do the other side next week. The clunk seems to be gone but I need a nice slow speed bump to fully test that.

2nd update: All front endlinks, upper ball joints and lower control arm/arms done. Clunk ended with right side endlink replacement. Shimmy still their. Next going to have balance of tires checked. It wasn't a total waste to do all this premature. I did find the control arms bushings a bit dried out.

Your query about re using the bolt on what you call the "Tie Rod" I reused the bolt and nut, it was in perfect shape.
The bush is referred to as castor adjustment bush, when you instal it you will see an arrow on the bush which needs to be lined up with a mark on the tie Rod, im guessing that this bush can be used as an adjustment if required.....only by installing a new one though, this bush is around 70mm diameter.
If you look at this bush you will notice its centre is only connected on two sides the bottom part of it relies on resting on the part the bolt passes through, the vulcanized part of the bush fails and caused more of a squeaking sound and a very slight thump on my FF.
Its actually pretty hard to see that it has failed.
Your issue sounds like wheel alignment. Did it just start all of a sudden or has it always been there.

It's not that I call it a tie rod. RAVE does.

Click image to enlarge

Goodo,
Thanks for putting that up.
WOW 165nm thats pretty tight, I did mine up FT by it would not have been 165.
Im changing my front discs and pads soon I will torque the sucker up properly, if I can source a new bolt I will fit them.
It wasnt that tight when I took it out thats for sure.

Bolts are generally less than $10 us unless you go dealer. I would imagine as long as you don't plan on any real off road adventures the old bolts would be safe to reuse but don't torque angle then again. As we move into winter here in Pennsylvania pot holes get rather large and abrupt. I feel better with new bolts even if no one has heard of one breaking.

So to sum it all up all ball joints were within serviceable limits. The bushing on the control arms were just starting to break down. The right sway bar end link was worn and caused the clunk. The upper ball joints were a pain to remove with an air chisel. I need to make a puller. As of now all ball joints and both end links are new. Front tires ballanced.

Clunk from end link. Shimmy at 65 to 75 MPH due to wheel balance.

Following up on this. As of this moment the following parts are new with between 0 and 10k: both inner track rods, both tie rods, both upper ball joints, both end links. I had just done both inner track rods because the alignment/mechanic garage said the right was worn and causing my clunk. They were obviously wrong. There is no play in the half shafts or the outer track rod ball joints.
This clunk is with bumpy roads going slow or speed bumps. That rocking roll of the front suspension brings it out. What is left to test?

Apparently its well known that the Dunlop strut is known to fail in the top of the strut if it has been fitted as a replacement to the OEM. Mine does it, and unfortunately only cure is to replace whole strut.