mtman74

First, I apprecate everyone's posts on bad tranny bearings, they have saved me some $$ and headaches in trying to figure what was up.

OK, first some background on this growing tale . .

I bought a '96 I30t w/ 5spd manual from the local Acura dealer about 6 weeks ago. When inspecting the car before I bought it, I noticed that the axle seal was leaking and made them put it in writing that they would fix it. Anyways to make a long story short . . I searched and found the .org posts on bearings and printed out the story on motorvate.ca and showed it to Acura. They replaced the seal 2x then sent it to the Infiniti dealer to work on it.

So Infiniti replaces the seal 2x, then the axle, then finally they replace the differential bearings. So this was all covered at no cost to me between Acura and Infiniti.

So when I got the car back from Infiniti, after they replaced the bearings and put the original axle back in, I get a single pop or ping from what sounds like the left front. It usually happens when I make a 90 degree left turn and then as I straighten up it makes the ping right as the wheel comes straight. It's a single ping or pop that sounds like if someone hit the car with a rubber mallet.

It does not happen every time, and when I am sitting at a stop and turn the wheel I cannot hear it. I took it back to Infiniti and had a "technician" ride with me and he heard it. They told me that they put "ears" on it in the shop and that it is not related to any of the work that they did on it and will charge me to look at it further. I don't see how that is the case given it was not there before they worked on it, and I am surely not going to let those monkeys work on it anymore.

Anyway, it sounds like it might be the strut coil or the strut bearings that I saw some posts about when I did a search. But those posts indicated mulitiple pings or grinding noise, I have a single ping. I am going to try the wire wrap around the coil this weekend to see if that is it and maybe replace the strut bearings.

But my concern is that this could be the differential? I would think that would be more of a grinding noise and constant through a turn . . .

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

It's most likely the strut bearing starting to get sticky. It causes the spring to sort of wind up and then suddenly release (pop/ping noise). They didn't remove your strut to get the axel out, but they did move it around quite a bit I'm sure. That must have just upset the bearing a little. Give it some time and it just may set up again and the noise might go away.

mtman74

Well, I finally got the chance to pull out the strut this weekend and sorry to say that it is not the strut bearing. I replaced it with a new one and also re-wrapped the coil with insulation since it was torn and wearing thin. The ping is still there.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

JeffesonM

iTrader: (5)

I have the same ping noise you're talking about. I've got a 99 SEL and it makes a little "ping" or maybe "ding" or maybe even "clink" as the wheel comes back to center after making a turn. I got it at 38,000 miles and it has always done it. I didn't even notice until my brother asked what it was. It is most evident on tight turns, like when turning around or something.