I've been hearing clunking noises (like ***** clunking around) from the front of the car towards the wheels that have gotten progressively louder and persistent over the past few months. The last time I changed the brake pads I noticed the CV boots were torn, but didn't have time to fix it. Could the noise be coming from the cv ball joints or something else?

My ride is very rough as well. I can feel every little crack in the road.

 

could be lots of things but need more info when does it clunk

slow going straight

slow turning

fast

or all the time no matter what speed

 

All the time, but less or none when on smooth roads and very hard clunks going over bumps.

 

I would check to see if you cv boots are split, it is quite possible that all of your grease could be out of the boot, which would explain the "clunk" sound when your driving.

 

The boots are torn, which explains the grease everywhere. No money for repairs now though.. how long do you think it'll last like this?

 

this sounds exactly like a bad ball joint to me. worst case scenario a combination of both axles and ball joint, but definatly ball joint(s).

 

a week, a month, a year... it all depends on how you drive and how often and how long. there's not a very high cost imvolved just to replace the boots though, you can get them from Brian (internetautomar) at a good price. http://www.internetautomart.com
something like $30 each if I remember correctly.

replacing the whole axle is better but would cost you about $60 each, again if I remember correctly.

btw ball joints are $17 a piece.

 

...its good we have got the yearly inspection which collects these death traps to off road racing. Its nothin if the negligent drivers would perish as car cannot be controlled, but no: innocent ppl who try to take care not to kill ya...

 

Thanks for the help, I'll see about getting them fixed asap. I don't drive it very hard anyhow, just to/fro work.

 

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I can't see how a failing drive axle would take you off the road..? all that would happen is that the drift would be on only one wheel, so when revving the car would want to go to left / right, but as soon as you'd notice anthing like that I'm sure 99% of all drivers would stop the car, don't you think?
I've never heard of an axle causing immediate stop.

 

with a non-lsd differential the wheel of least resistance gets the power.
in simpler terms when the joint goes, it becomes the wheel of least resistance and all the power goes there. leading to a loss of power and potential for the good part of the axle to swing around and ruin your body and suspension.

 

hmm ok that's good to know. now, I know this question has been asked like a hundred times before but which models came with vlsd? and second, did all those come with it or was it an option?

 

Sounds dangerous. O_o I take it this is something I should've fixed yesterday.

 

only VEs came with it. it appears to have been on every one, but every catalog asks whether it has it or not

 

I see... hmm maybe one of those things you could talk to the dealer about. I have a contact with a guy at the Nissan distributer, I'll ask him next time I speak to him.

 

I was reading between these lines: "My ride is very rough as well. I can feel every little crack in the road." That is definitely NOT axle. ... maybe my imagination wandered to somethin actually seen on the road. I wonder if this vehicle has any rust bit of shocks still hanging in the wind? If u cannot keep axles in condition, less shocks, bearings, brakes whatever: in that case the vehicle will flow down the road until theres one kid playing causing emergency: too late now to think hows gonna steer that 3000lb, stop...

In safety issues The car MUST be in condition if u drive it. (in axle business its as u say; still it will spread on the road, one day. What happens will be a surprise... and happiness depends on what happens.)

 

yeah that why I posted this

of course the whole suspension could be rotten and in that case yes it could be dangerous. but that's a big maybe. he'd need to get the wheel off and look around, it's probably not as bad as you would think, I know the ball joints will cause these symptoms so my guess is that's all that's bad.

 

Hope youre right. I want to wake up ppl about the dangers of not investing in the basic safety matters, but maybe I was wrong here and "My [opinion was] rough as well." At least this friend jmai86 is asking input...

So pls jmai86 check out u suspension, life is just a vapour before it vanishes away.