'98 s70 120k miles.

After the car is parked for awhile, I get a tug or a click under the hood as I back up the car doing a slight turn. I suspect it might be the cv joint, but I don't necessary get the click or tug sound if I go forward and do a turn. I have a hard time determining if the sound is coming from the left or right of the engine. Any ideas how to troubleshoot the clicking sound?

P.S. I recently installed a remanufactured cv axle on the driver side and rebuilt (replaced the boot) the passenger side cv axle. I also replaced the driver side wheel bearing. Could I have missed something during my installation? Any suggestion is appreciated.

Thanks,

 

Do you have the wheel turned all the way?

 

No, far from it. I would say just a quarter turn. I does not pop all the time. It would occassionaly also pop when I go forward with a slight turn. I don't get a click, click, click sound while turning so I suspect it might not be the CV joint.

Grabbing the driver side outer tie rod arm, I could move it back and forth about 1/4 of inch. With the wheel installed, I get more play on the 3 and 9 (horizontal) than the 12 and 6 position. As for passenger side tie rod arm has less play -- about 1/8 inch. The 12 and 6 position of both front wheel is nice and tight (no play at all). I don't see any fuild coming out of the plastic boots of the steering rack. Could a bad inner rod make a poping sound?

 

If you have any play at all then the tie rods are bad. That could very well be causing the noise. Also check the sway bar links. They could cause noise as well.

 

Tech, thank you for your advise. I will go ahead and replace the inner rods. I have checked the sway bars earlier by grabbing the stem and shaking it. They don't have any play. I will post how I do after I replaced the inner rods.

 

Tech, it is definetly the inner rod as you said. The ball has quite a bit of play. I started on the driver side inner rod but could not remove the rod from the steering beam. I squirted some PB blaster but to no avail. I'm afraid of putting so much torque turning the inner rod that I may break some seals. Any suggestion how to take it off?

 

Give it a good bit of torque. If you can get in there with a pipe wrench try that. Also it might be hard for you to find but they make a special tool for it. It is like a really long socket with some rollers in the end. They grab the inner part then you can loosen it with a breaker bar.

 

I finally got the inner tie rod out using the special tool you mentioned--rented the item at a local auto supply store. I have attached some pictures for other reader's benefit what the tool looks like. The inner tie rod is inserted in the tool on one of the pictures.

I could not find on the Haynes manual what the torque should be to tighten the inner rod to the steering shaft. I gave it about 47 ft lbs, hopefully this is enough.

Holding the tire at 12 and 6 o'clock and shaking, I get zero play. I stll get a very small play, although much less than before, holding and shaking on the 3 and 9. The wheel has new inner and outer tie rod, and new wheel bearing. I'm not sure why I'm still getting a small play. I changed the cv joint about a month ago and perhaps I did something wrong during installation. I will mess with it this weekend and see if could get it to tighten some more.[IMG]

See attached file to what the tool looks like.

 

Stick a prybar between the lower control arm and the hub and try to lift the hub up or push the control arm down. You should have 0 play in theballjoint. The Balljoint is most likely bad.

 

Tech, thank you for your input.

Replaced both the control arms and the clicking is finally gone. I'm upset because these Meyle control arms with its pressed in ball joints went bad only after 22k miles. These were installed by an indy mechanic about 2 years ago. I don't drive rough nor do I live out on the country subject to bad roads. I pulled out the boots to see why the ball joints are a bit loose. I found the ball joints are covered what appears like black powder. The rubber seals still looks new and in good order, but the grease appear to have dried out. I'm going to take apart the other control arm and see if it is the same. Now I'm tempted to install a grease nipple at the bottom of the ball joints. I'm not sure if this is doable or a good idea but certainly expect the ball joint to last a lot more that 22k miles.

 

It might have just been the brand the Indy bought.

 

The replacement control arms I got from an internet purchase happens to be from the same manufacturer (Meyle). I'm considering installing a grease nipple on the bottom plate of the ball joint after a year of use.

Tech, again thanks for your help.

 

No problem keep us posted.