I have posted about this problem before and I do not know what it is. When I go down a gravel road my left front is loose, it makes a shaking/clunking noise when the front end travels up and down going over the gravels. Also when I turn the wheel to the left while driving I get a whiring/rolling noise. For example when I am driving and go around a curve to the left when I turn the wheel it makes a whiring noise and once I straighten up after I go thru the curve it goes away. I am pretty sure some is loose or worn out but I don't know what it is. Most of my front end parts are new, except for the LCAs. Could it have something to do with the transmission? The axles are less than 10K old and this problem is getting worse. I can hear the whuring noise some even when I am gong straight. Does anyone have any ideas? Its getting cold out and I would like to fix it and I am thinking about taking it to a shop if I cannot figure out what it is. Thanks for any help.

also when I let off of the gas or get on it really quick there is play/looseness. When I let off of the gas it will kinda buck a little bit.

 

time to change right front bearing

 

seeing how you mentioned the LCAs, could be the LCA bushings. Those could account for the clunking noise.

 

I had a similiar problem, except for the noise while turning but when I would drive and rode over uneven surfaces i would hear a small clunking noise. i replaced LCA's, and it was still there. I would also hear it when I would begin acceleration, the shifting of the body weight would cause the clunking also. Turned out to be a bad strut insulator/mount.





Maybe your experiencing the same thing.

 

oh wow...thanks for the pictures. I do have a new strut mount, but I have not wanted to get another alignment I did not even think about them breaking like that. Did you have a looseness over bumpy roads? Did you get a whering/wobble nosie (not the feeling of a wobble though) when turning the wheel towards the side that was bad? The noise I am having is very defined when driving on gravel roads.

 

its not a constent noise, and my spindles have been changed before...I don't think that is the problem, nor do I think I would feel this much "play" with a bad wheel bearing

 

I would have to say it is the LCA Bushings. Another .org member had a similar problem, just not as advanced. From what you explained, everything else BUT the bushings is new...correct?
The whirling noise makes me curious. The wheel bearing is a growling noise, and I have seen them so bad that they came apart, which may be the case.
Since you live in VA, you probably have bad roads like Ohio, Right? Snow+salt+ freeze/thaw+Giant,Unforgiving plows = Big Holes (or bigger Mounds when they try to fix the holes). This leads to excessive movement on the wheel. The suspension can only help to a point.

OR: The roads teamed up with oil from either a front crank seal or uncleaned oil change/leaky oil filter can lead to bad bushings. (the oil helps break down the rubber).

If the price is right, I would just go to a TRUSTED mechanic. This situation may be too involved without directly working on the car. Sorry if I did not help.

 

Yup, I had some loosenes coming from that, but I didnt have any noise when turning, just the clunk when going over rough surfaces.

 

I have a similar problem...For example: i slow down to go over railroad tracks. As my front end goes over the tracks, i hear all kinds of clunking/rattling coming from the front end. I can't pinpoint where exactly it's coming from, but it drives me crazy and people always ask what the heck is that noise, it sounds like your car is coming apart....any ideas?

 

ok, I'll look in to the strut mount

 

Wheel bearings.. just went through it..

 

could you describe what your car did? Like noises, how it felt on gravel roads. The only thing that makes me think that its not a wheel bearing is that it does not make noise when I am turning to the right. Plus the loosness.

 

Well, I have had both Strut mounts and bearings go out. The strut mounts just pop and squeak a bit, if you turn your music up, you wouldn't be able to tell(don't recomend that, but that's the difference between the two), at least I couldn't tell just because mine is lowered and I'm used to a bumpy ride.. The wheel bearing on the other hand is quite noticeable. The sound it makes is a combo of whoosh scrape and screach(best description i can make.. haha) It isn't always constant.. Kind of sounds like the brakes might be going out. Then if you don't take care of it, braking does come into play. Your whole wheel is basically wobbling side to side. It can shimmy things loose, wear down your brake pads, and feel pretty scary when turning one side or the other. Unlike your axles, the affected side is consistant to where the sound is coming from(axles are opposite) If you think it is your axle, inspect the boots. You mentioned gravel, which leads me to believe you have been driving in it. Tiny dust particles/ sand could have effected either your cv boots or your bearings(if the seals are bad.)

If you make friends at a local shop, they'll look at it and tell you whats wrong, then you can take it and fix it yourself. haha worked for me. Any other questions, let me know.

 

i have the same damn noise!(squeak, clunk). correct me if im wrong, but i dont have to use a spring compressor when i replace the strut mounts right? obviously i know i'll prob need an alignment afterward, but i need one anyway.

sorry for hijacking your thread but thought it would be pointless to add another thread on the same topic.

 

It sounds like you are talking about the strut bearing with the popping noise, I have had that go out as well. It makes the spring bind up because its turning the spring as well. I already have a strut mount here and I am getting ready to switch to my winter wheels so when I do that I will replace the mount before the alignment. If that does not fix it then I will look for other things before i get the car realigned for the winter.

 

The mount is under the top nut so i would use a spring compressor unless you have really short springs and can get away without using one. For example, I have ground controls, and when the weight of the car is not on the springs then they do not even touch the top perch so they would be safe to take on and off without using a spring compressor.

 

I would have to say that you are dealing with two problems. One being the clunking, and the other being the noise when turning. I have a 96 and dealt with an extremely irritating clunking in the front end for at least 50k miles before realizing it was only my sway bar end links which were bad. Without a doubt if you have not changed these yet, they are bad. I just had to replace them on my wifes 2002 with only 40k on it. As a side note if you are replacing these, get Moog parts, they are much beafier. As for the noise when turning, I would definitely rule out tires/alignment first as they could be the culprit.

 

Thanks for the advice. The car does have new (less than a year old) sway bar end links. That's the troubling part, almost every part in the front end is new. The only part I can think or right now that is not new are the lower control arms. I replaced the strut mount like Flava recomended, and that did not fix anything.

I really don't get a noise when turning the wheel, the time that I mostly notice it is going down a gravel drive way, when the wheel/tire is moving on the gravel it creates a rapid clunking noise. I would love to fix this. Could anything in the transmission cause something like this?

 

Man, sorry to hear that replacing the mounts didnt fix it. I thought for sure that was the issue. It seems you have replaced everything on that side now.
Im not sure if the LCA bushing would cause that noise though. Maybe, I guess it wouldnt hurt to replace it as well.

 

yeah I know it would not hurt...I'm kinda tired of throwing money at it. I am tempted to take it to a shop and have them diagnose it then go from there(I doubt I'll do this since I have not take a vehicle to the shop for anything other than inspection or alignment in a while).

 

I replaced my LCA bushings in an attempt to track down clunking from the front right. But that wasn't the problem, it's still clunking. I've heard that if either of the control arm bushings are going to go bad, the passenger's side is more likely because a leak in the power steering will find it's way to that bushing and eat away at it.

 

cardana24: Are you riding on stock springs or lowered springs? If lowered, you could have coil bind making a clunking when riding over rough roads.

 

Right now I am on Ground Controls and AGX's. I do not think that is the problem, the springs a pretty stiff, and it is not happening on big dips that I would expect things to bottom out and bind, but rather just riding on a rough road. I used to have my ground controls all the way down in the front and I have raised them back up a few inches for the winter, and I the clunking is just as noticible at both heights.

 

thanxs fix my up new mount good as new