lunareg

Looking for some confirmation here more than anything.

So ive just replaced almsot everything in my front end.

upper and lower ball joints, tie rods, all bushings, new coilovers, the wheel bearings where done about 500 miles ago and my axles have about 1000 miles on them.

I replaced this stuff because it all looked like it was from 93 and i plan on alot of spirited driving in this thing so I wanted a fresh start. The popping just started happening 2 days after I replaced everything.

Now whenever im going slow and turning left I here some nasty popping from the passenger side, only when im going slow like turning into my driveway. I will pop once, it sounds real gnarly. Im pretty certain this means axle, but i just want to make sure, because like I said they only have 1000 miles on them.

NACvicSi

Sounds like a CV joint.

lunareg

im really thinking thats it, but I figured it would be a constant popping through the whole turn and not just once thats what kinda throwing me off.

I have some lifetime napa axles, but I sure as hell dont want to keep reppin em out every 1,000 miles.. if it is them hopefully i just got a jank axle and they all dont suck this bad

NACvicSi

Ah that does sounds odd. Does it make the sound when you turn your wheel even sitting still? If so jack up, take the wheel off, and have someone turn the wheel. Maybe you can pin point where it's coming from.

lunareg

nope, nothing when its just sitting on the ground, only left turns, and going up the driveway bump makes it sounds hella bad..

I think the root of the problem is my damn axle nut -fell off- when I going around a cloverleaf. I didnt know what it was at first, but I def heard something metal hit the ground then bounce up under my car.

So I scoped around when I got home and the nut was gone :/ I called up napa and they said its a one time use nut, but ive re-used them a **** load so I dunno how the thing fell off and I only drove maybe 2 miles with it not there. I dont really know what that can screw up besides your wheel bearing, never had it happen before.

LoLoCivic

iTrader: (1)

sounds like a blown axle but idk its guess

lunareg

I took it out this morning and it didnt make a peep until I got to work and it started doing it again. when I was pulling into the parking lot slow. Im confused

EJeff8

My friend had sheared axles on his Del Sol and it did this. Possible failure even though your axles are relatively new.

Sean @ ESG

iTrader: (1)

NAPA axles come with new axle nuts on them, why would you reuse the old one?

lunareg

because I had to take the axle nut off to do all my bushings, balljoints, and tie rods

lunareg

anyone else got some ideas

hondamark35

sometimes intermittent popping sounds can be related to the brakes. for instance, a friend with an '07 accord had a popping from the rear most but not all of the time. when we pulled it apart 2 of the 3 pad positioning springs were missing from the caliper. we proceeded with the brake job as planned. this didn't help the noise any. a few days later he was able to get some replacement springs and as a result no more popping sound.

still in my experience a C/V joint is more likely.

lunareg

yeah signs are sure pointing that way. im gonna have to snag some new ones, I need to rep out my axle seal on the passenger side anyways.. hopefully thats all thats wrong, there not much else it could be in my mind

hyperblu

steering rack?

lunareg

I dunno much about the rack, never really messed with it aside from the adjuster.. what on the rack could pop when your turning slow or hit a bump

pityocamptes

I've used them a few times, however you have to make sure you peen the nut into the offset at the axle end.

pityocamptes

I doubt its the the rack, I just finished swapping a new one in. Sounds more like the CV joint.

Any chance you can SAFELY jack/support the front of your car up, load the suspension with another jack and then have a friend turn the wheels left and right while you try to zero in on the popping sound?

lunareg

yeah this is a good idea, I think im going to snag an axle while im at it since its lifetime and i need to do that axle seal too.

before we tear everything apart im gonna throw it on a jackstand and jackup the lca and see if we can find what exactly it is.

It wouldnt be a bushing binding would it? Ive never heard what that sounds like or what the symptoms are.

Sonia's Driver

My Jetta makes a very similar sound in very similar situations due to worn upper strut mount bushings. The parts are cheap but it's such a PITA job that I've been procrastinating. Did you replace these when you did all the other suspension work?

lunareg

yeah, I replaced every bushing in the front end and the rear with the energy suspension kit... I dunno what the hell it is yet, It will be next week before I can get some time to work on it

hyperblu

btw lunar, your eg is probably one of the cleanest ive seen... props.

lunareg

hell yeah, thanks! Ive been building the thing for almost a year now, its basically all brandnew

hyperblu

When I pay off some debt,save up, i'll sell my em1 and make an epic build thread with an ek hatch... Im wanting to buy an ek hatch shell, strip it repaint it completely vsm, shave and tuck the bay, ctr lips, and build a b18c1,i/h/e, 5 lug, 16" work emotion cr kai... ahh I just love thinking about it.

SlickC95

my car used to pop going in and out of my driveway on the same side then to come to find out it was my balljoint that i replaced a month ago.

lunareg

man, It started doing this when i put brand new ones in, and the f'd up thing is my passenger side wasnt even bad yet, I just wanted to do em all at the same time. I would be so pissed if it was the balljoint, they are my arch enemy.