Situation:

when I leave from my work parking spot, I must crank the wheel all the way to the left to face the car to the right. When I reverse from my spot, and turn the wheel, I get this very loud pop noise coming from the right front. I can even feel it through the wheel.

Recently, I have had the power steering rack rebuilt. New front shocks, ALL new bushings, inner and outer tie-rod ends, new ball-joints, and sway bar link bushings. Within the last year it has had new rotors and pads on the front.

Now, my questions are:
What is the noise? Any Ideas?
Should I start my investigation with the brakes, suspension, or steering rack?

 

Top strut bearings/bushes. No one ever replaces them.

Regards, Andrew.

 

I wish it was that simple. I looked through service records, when struts were replaced, strut mounts were also replaced. Unless they lied to me, which is entirely possible.

Is it likely that this popping noise issue, is related to the Alignment of the car being so off, that the rear of the car is about 8" to the right of the front of the car as it drives in a straight line? I'm wondering if that is because whoever aligned the car after the steering rack was replaced did a crappy job, or if something is loose (obviously something is loose) that would cause the alignment to change on its own.

 

could be a lower ball joint or tie rod end.

 

considered that too, what are torque specifications for ball joints? Probably not tie-rod end, cause those are new and hard to screw up.

 

It was a sticking right front caliper.

 

How did you determine this? I have the same loud pop on hard turns, but it also makes sound when going over the helen keller bumbs or really rough roads, but most of all, it's when I apply the brakes. My sound is on the drivers side and sounds like it is against the firewall. Like someone snapped a tight wire line against it.

I figured it was the strut bearing, because it sounded like what the company's malibu was doing. (POS), But I had those replaced. it might be defective though.

The struts are new as well. I ordered from rock auto and they sent the wrong sized struts for my vehicle. So, I ran out of time and had Sears put the correct sized ones in, boy was that expensive, but then the noise started sometime after that.

 

I basically went through the front of the car and made sure every bolt was tight. then once that was confirmed, it left only one of two options, either something in the front end was broken, unlikely since it was all recently replaced, or it was something else. So I pulled the wheel, looked at the pads, and sure enough, one of them was way more worn than the other. So I pulled the caliper, and a piston was sticking, so I bought a new one. Now it doesn't make the noise.

but since it sounds like its on the fire wall, and the mount point for the control arm stay is on the firewall, have you considered that you might have a bad bushing in the right front control arm stay? or maybe even a bad ball joint? Either that, or sears did a poor job installing the struts. I once had a strut come loose at the top after about 6 months of being replaced, because some idiot didn't tighten it enough the first time. Take it back to Sears, tell them you think something went wrong with the strut installation, and have them check it out. If they cant find anything wrong with the install, start checking bushings.

 

The control arm was my line of thinking as well. But I am not seeing anything. Also I replaced the bushings last summer and the ball joint as well. Though they could have gone bad in a year. Guess I'll have to have it disassembled and reassembled correctly.

I think I'll skip Sears even if I could get them to do it without cost., I have a mechanic nearer that I trust more.

Thanks for the reply