I am really confused as to what could be wrong with my car . I went to get it re-aligned today and after 3-autoxs and 2 months the front left was WAY out of wack. We started at -2.2 and today it was -1.6, we ended up putting it back in place (I decided to go with -2.0 on the front due to traction issues).

As I was leaving the shop upon my initial forward movment in 1st I noticed a very distinct sharp click from the front left tire well. Upon lifting the throttle I noticed the same sound. I continued hearing this sound upon initial throttle (even slight) and everytime I lifted throttle no matter what gear I was in. However, it would NEVER happen while braking. I took it back to the shop and had them look at it. Out in the parking area the tech eased off of the clutch in 1st as I watched and almost every time we got the same sound, from my perspective it also looked as if the tire hesitated to roll forward. We put it up on the rack and checked all of the bolts and everything was tight. We then checked for play in the tire thinking it could be a wheel bearing, and no side to side play. We even went as far as putting it in gear on the rack and having me drive it and duplicate the off/on throttle and again nothing. Our final test was sudden movements back and forth while in neutral with the car on the ground and still nothing.

I am really confused as to what this may be, I am not sure if it is even related to the sudden change in alignment, but I do find it odd. My initial thought is wheel bearing, but I think I would have play in the tire on or off of the rack. My next thought is tie rod end, or ball joint at an extream angle under the new camber, but this should make sounds even while braking. My only real thoughts are that the CV joint is at a strange angle and is poping in and out of place (but again it seems as if this is not dependant on on or off brakes) or the hub nut is lose and it is pulling slightly in and out. I also thought maybe the differential in the tranny could be bad. I really don't have a good answer, the tire is off and nothing really sticks out.

Symptoms:
-significant change in front camber on this side
-ONE sharp click from the left side with sudden accel and deccel, no other time
-does not happen unless weight is on the tire
-does not happen when on the brakes
-does not happen unless the car is in gear

 

it seems to me like a CV joint or something ....if it only clicks when quick accel and decel then it might spin and then catch b/c of the extreme camber .....hard to explain in words

just a guess ..get it figured out?

 

I tightened the axle nut, it seemed tight, but I still managed 1/8 of a turn out of each nut. And then rotated the tires, and the sound is gone . I really don't know what it was, but I don't think anything that I did would have fixed it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bgoetz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I tightened the axle nut, it seemed tight, but I still managed 1/8 of a turn out of each nut. And then rotated the tires, and the sound is gone . I really don't know what it was, but I don't think anything that I did would have fixed it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

so you got the sound when it was on the ground driving, but not when it was on the lift? Sounds like since you got a 1/8in turn out of each nut, that there might have been one or more that were loose enough that it was producing a sound.. thats just my guess. Glad to hear you fixed the problem tho