My car was lowered about 2" and everything was fine. I had my alignment and it was all cool for about a year. 2 weeks ago, I got sick of my "old man's" lowered stance and I dumped it. I am tucking my tires now. While I was under there, I discovered that my steering rack boots are riped. (the accordeon-looking boots) and also my car started to slightly knock.

It is not a noise, and it's not my axles because it doesn't happen when I turn at all, just in a straight line in a nice flat road. You can feel a light repeated vibration that gets faster as I go faster. My balljoints all look fine, outer tie rod ends look fine, just the boot that is ripped.

Would lack of lubrication inside the inner tie rod end cause the knocking (due to the ripped boot) cause the vibration or is it just the need for an alignment?

the boot is getting replaced anyways, but I don't know if I should buy the inner tie rod ends too! don't know if I should or not...

 

Check your upper and lower control arms
The nut on my upper was loose and it made a clicking but I only noticed it extremely slight bumps

 

Yea one thing I haven't done is actually rock the wheel sideways and up and down

Will check for tommorow

 

Ok, i lifted the front wheels up, and grabbed the wheel at 9 and 6, and then at 12 and 6. There is no play except in the driver side wheel at 9 and 6, but the tie rod end looks great. So I'm thinking inner tie rod end? or

 

If the tie rod boots are ripped you lost/losing the lubricant, that could create the knocking sound I do suppose, that sounds like the most likely problem. I'm like 60% sure you can replace just the tie rod boot but I'm not positive, I'd get 'em changed ASAP, make sure they have lubricant, and see where you are from there.

 

Yea, both boots are ripped (the accordeon-looking boots) that cover the inner tie rod ends. Everything else is in good condition. These are $25 each from honda, which is not too bad. After that, alignment time