Heres the problem. Maybe someone else has had it and found out what was wrong. When going around a turn i would say about 15-20 mph, i get a clunking sound coming from the front of the car near the drivers side. It doesn't always happen just sometimes. It sounds as if i'm going over a decent size rock but my axle is dragging on the rim aswell. Kind of like a beat from a song or something. I am un sure of what my problem is or where its exactly coming from. It also happens sometimes when i'm at a stop and i turn the wheel a little and start to roll. I looked on my rim and its fine, no marks or anything. Can anyone help me out and diagnose my problem? Thanks

 

it could be a couple of things when is the last time you changed your shocks. take a look at your shocks and if you see the gas running out of the top of the shock also double check your axels and check for anything that is loose

 

How can you see gas coming out of a strut? oil maybe? gas no. Sounds like maybe an axle? Tension rod? I'd check wheel torque A.S.A.P wheels falling off=bad

 

you need to raise the car up and start feeling around. push stuff in every direction. feel for play or clunks. if you feel any movement, its bad.

 

Feel around for what? what do you want me to move? some things are supost to move so that doesn't really make any sense. my lugs are on there pretty good, but i'm going to re check them today. i'll get back to you

 

push the wheel back and forth. grab the tie rod end and push it up. if theres any bit of jerk, thats not good.

move the steering wheel on the ground, if theres any clunk, thats bad too. find out where that clunk is.

 

alright... i'll get back to you in a couple hours.

 

I don't see any problems. All the parts look fine. also, on the whole wheel issue, it doesn't move at all. I was making a turn today and noticed it did it at the locking position (full turn one way) does it happen to anyone else? I'm guessing it only does it then but i have yet to see.

 

it sounds like an axle to me... is it like a clicking/ratcheting sound? if so its a cv joint.. get an axle. a wheel bearing makes a hum or grinding and the suspension makes a knock if things are screwed up usually. good luck brotha

 

everything checks out fine except for the axle. I see some signs of the axle hitting the bolt on the tire rods connected to the lower control arm. But that wouldn't affect turning becuase the suspension doesn't move on slow turning. its more of a kur-thud, kur-thud sound. I don't know if axles do that. I wish I had a recorder or something so i can place it near the wheel well and u can hear it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by UltimX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">everything checks out fine except for the axle. I see some signs of the axle hitting the bolt on the tire rods connected to the lower control arm.</TD></TR></TABLE>

what? definately something wrong there.

 

There probably is something wrong but it doesn't look like it was recient to effect my car. What I mean is that if that was the problem, the marks on the axle would be new but they all looked old. Old as in having oil on them. It was weird, I tried to record the noise yesterday night and I couldn't get a crack at the thing at all. I went and turned the wheel and nothing happened. Even accellerated in the turn to see if that would actually make the noise. No Dice. When I went to turn my car around, I was making a 3 pt turn and once I started to back up and correct, it happened. This is why I think the marks are only from full suspension travel like going over bumps fast or something. even when I was accelerating around the turn nothing happened. Anyone have any other suggestions on what it could be? Are there any bushings on the rack of the steering? If so, where? I want to check and see if that is the problem.

 

that would be the rack end bushing. but thats on the passenger side. only $10 and a bitch for labor to change for the first time.

however, you can also try to adjust the steering rack gearbox. thats free.

you need to raise the car, get underneath and grab the tie rod and shake it. push up and down. if you feel any play, you need to change the rack end bushing and adjust the gearbox.

are you getting play in your steering wheel? clunk every time you turn in the parking lot?

 

probably the cv joints. go to a parking lot of something and stop, turn the wheel all the way to the left and back up slowly. do the same with the wheel turned to the right. you'll probably here that same sound. try to distinguish which side is worse by the sounds.

 

Tyson: Play side to side? up and down? or both? I'll check now. If my garage was cleaned and I could find the stupid jack, I would jack up the car and check right now. I can't though so thats going to have to wait. Also, do you have a pic of the bushing? When I backed up yesterday, I was stoped and turned the wheel clock wise, once i backed up i heard that noise from the passenger side. I wasn't sure at first but that was my first though.

Md88hfcrx: Once I find out which side is worse, what do i do about it? Should I do whatever it is to both sides since they are both making the noise?

 

if you for sure know which side it is coming from then you need to replace the axle. its kind of hard to determine which side it is for sure, but you can try to jack it up, turn each wheel completely 1 way and turn each side seperatly. which ever side makes the sound is the problem

also make sure you tie rods are seated properly and that it doesnt have any motion in and out of its socket. My HF did something similar to that and i replaced the tie rods.

 

so replacing the axle should take care of it correct? If so, then i should just buy both so I don't have to worry about the other later. i'll check this theory with the parking lot IE. How fast should i back up? or does it matter?

 

not fast, like your pulling out of a parking space. youll hear it at a slow speed. yeah, i would replace both sides to save future trouble. keep the old ones and see if one happens to be good and save it incase of future trouble.

the faster you go the faster the clunking should be.

 

I backed up and nothing. I did it maybe a little fast but there wasn't a single noise. I am going to check my tie rods tomarrow. Shouldn't there be some flex close to the cross member?