Hi, I have a Tribute 2008 V6 AWD at 45000km. I have a strange intermittent knocking kind of noise when breaking.
The noise is a single dull "clunk" kind of noise that occurs only at breaking once the speed got down to the 30km/h mark. It never occurs when accelerating of breaking at an other speed.
And I don't slam the breaks; I am talking normal, gentle breaking here.

The dealer got me into doing the breaks service convinced it was the source of the noise. Then, they change both outer tie rods again convinced it was the origin of the noise. Problem stills there.

This seems illogical to me. The noise only happen when breaking and when the speed comes to a specific mark, 30km/h. To me, it got to be linked with the drive train, trans axle or differential.

Any idea?

 

Often forgotten and hell to locate; don't forget the exhaust system, it's like a long crowbar extension of the power train. I found that out the hard way by re-bushing the front suspension of my Protege only to find out it was the exhaust heat shield giving the floor pan a little whack, and was fixed for a pittance compared to what I did for nothing.
Maybe see what happens when you downshift vigorously to decelerate at about the same rate as if you were braking (don't brake though).

 

I had the same issue. I replaced pads, rotors, then tie rods but still had the clunking or tapping noise when breaking. Eventually it turned into accelerating or cruise speed. In my case it turned out to be the right front drive axle.