egvera89

What's going on Honda tech. Im having an issue with my car and hope to get some pointers or guidance on what's wrong. I have a ej1 coupe with a k24 in it, and I'm also using a 2004 RSX transmission. Recently I have been experiencing this weird clunk when I turn the steering wheel either to the right or left. When I drive straight nothing happens or there's no sound. Only when I make a slow turn does it do the clunk. And right before it does the clunk my steering feels like resisted and if I force the steering in the direction I want to go it will clunk really hard. If I feel that resistance and lightly hold the steering wheel the steering will actually straighten itself out.

Now I've been doing some online research and some things are telling me that my spider gears on my differential are either worn or damaged and that can cause that clunk to happen. Also that my axles can be damaged some where near the joints or the shaft that goes into the transmission.

I still need to remove the axles and double check that and my suspension to make sure I'm not going crazy but anyone have any ideas or have had this problem in then past and found the solution so that it can maybe save me some time. Thanks for viewing and reading this thread.

egvera89

I found the problem. I blew my differential.

bigtimlikewhoa

You tore the transmission open to look or what?

bigtimlikewhoa

I'm having some clunking noise problem too. I have a pair of brand new axles so I know they're not the problem. I haven't driven this car in over 3 years (torn apart and doing wire tuck) and last time I drove it, there wasn't any clunk. I have kaaz lsd on mine. When I turn slowly just like what you did, I hear a drivetrain noise clunk and it's really bad. I haven't really had time to mess with it but I have a bad feeling that something took a dump inside my tranny. Either the diff or the final drive. Doesn't make any sense though because the transmission has been sitting for a long time.

egvera89

Yea man, I know what your saying. My differential blew on one of my passes during a event. Also a friend of mine had the same problem before me. He drove the car and the trans had no problem. He took the swap out did a few things and put it back in and the clunking started and then over a few weeks it got worse and worse and then it blew up also. Some times I feel like things work fine and then once you stop driving or don't use it for some time it gets worse.

And yea I took my transmission apart. First I thought it might have been my axles also but my axles should give me issues because I have driveshaft stage 2.9. There rated for 500 whp and im making only 250. Plus there about a year old now and in great shape. I took the axles out first just to inspect it and they were fine but on the shaft of the axles that go into the tranny I could see little specks of metal on the fluid. Also when I drained the fluid you could see there was metal in it because the fluid looked metallic.

And finally I stuck my finger inside the hole where the axles go and I could physically move my differential since the bar in the middle snapped (I don't have a LSD ).

But once I opened the transmission besides the metal parts that fell out I took the gears out and carefully ( just hold them tightly together so they don't come apart) and next was the final drive/ diff and the spider gears were chewed up and the diff was visibly broken. If you want some pictures check out my build thread and on the last page its on there. But I also looked it up online and things kept pointing to the spider gears since the noise will only happen when turning. Hope this helps some.