Hey guys I was on here a lot over Christmas because I had replaced my front ball joints and control arm bushings along with inner and out tie rod ends. I also replaced my driver side front axle with one from FCP and rebuilt the passenger side with a NAPA rebuild kit.

I now am getting a clicking/clunking sound when I back out of parking spaces or pulling in or any type of slow moving turns. After doing a lot of reading I found that it could possibly be the subframe bushing. To asses if the CV joints were bad I removed my driver side tire, put the wheel at full lock and rotated it. I didn't get any sounds from the CV joint. I then had my wife drive around slowly turning the wheel full lock both ways while I walked along beside the car. When I heard clicks and clunks they sounded like they were coming from deeper in the car than the axles but I am not sure.

Anybody have a similar problem that was fixed by replacing these bushings or doing the poly inserts from IPD? Thanks for any tips.

 

I'm just taking a wild guess, the CV axle has a 14mm bolt that should not be reused as it stretches. The other stuff that's noisy is the sway bar bushings and the strut top bearing.

 

I reused the cv bolt for the axle I rebuilt so that is still a possibility. The sway bar bushings do look squished and cracked. So those may be the culprit. I have not been able to check the top side of the suspension though.

 

I think I may have found the problem.

While taking my tires off to inspect today I noticed the tire was just slightly loose and hardly noticeable when I shook it just after jacking the car. when I rotated the axles it almost sounded and felt as if the brakes were slightly grabbing intermittently as I spun the rotors. Then driving around later I heard a slight wurring noise consistent with my speed. So putting all this together I am now thinking it is the wheel bearing that is going or already gone.

At first I did not look into the wheel bearing assuming that all it did was wine/squeal when it went bad. Then I was reading that if its bad or going bad it can click and pop when making slow turns. I never drive with my windows down so I haven't noticed the sound while moving until now. Can anyone confirm that bad wheel bearings can produce the click/pop sounds? Thanks.

 

I think that looks more like a CV joint (axle). It could be more apparent when doing a tight turn at slow speed, such as in a parking lot. The CV joint is bent to it's max in such position and usually makes a 'clacking' noise. A look at the grease boot that covers the joint can also help.

The bearing feels 'rough' to the hand when turned, but I don't think it will make noise when turned by hand. A better check for the bearing is to remove the brake assembly, then the brake disk, then turn the bearing hub - you should feel this way without doubts if the bearing is rough or smooth.

 

The CV boots seem fine. As stated earlier the driver side is new as of December/January from FCP and the passenger side is rebuilt (both inner and out joints) I almost wouldn't be surprised if the aftermarket parts did go though. With the tire off and the steering wheel at full lock I rotated the axles and didn't hear any problems and the boots looked good. But would the suspension need to be loaded with the weight of the car in order to create the popping/clunking sound?

 

Don't know if the suspension needs to be loaded, but usually you can feel a 'play' at the CV joint if it's worn, just grab it with both hands and shake the axle up and down.. Also check the 14mm bolt is well tighten (a common issue)

 

Its been my experience that a pop/click is cv. I never heard a wheel bearing produce that sound. And it usually has to be loaded to produce it. The cv can be bad while the boot is good.