Ford Repair: Ford Taurus Station Wagon Making a Jingling Sound, outer tie rods, wheel bearing

Question
While driving home on the highway I noticed a sound in the drivers side front that sounded like change jingling in my pocket, or a chain dragging on the ground. The sound can not be heard at a very slow crawl, only when the car gets up to about 10+ mph. Braking doesn't affect it, nor does hitting bumps really. The only thing I noticed when I pulled off the tire was the bar that attaches the sway bar to the shock housing has very poor bearings on them (could rotate fairly easily by hand.)

Could this be causing the jingling sound? My other thought was that perhaps my wheel bearing has given out (since the car hasn't been aligned properly) and what I was hearing was actually little bits of metal jingling around in there. Any ideas / suggestions?

Answer
hello there. If you can turn the strut fairly easy by hand then I dont see the bearings being faulty. But that bar you are talking about is a sway bar link. Its ok if it can turn easy, but you should try to jerk it back and forth. If the joint feels loose then that may be the culprit. if you can hear the clicking noise when you jerk it then that is definitly a problem. also make shure the ball joints and innner and outer tie rods are ok. those can also make rattling noises over bumps. Let me know what you find.
good luck
Chris P