Ball Joint going bad?

[NoobTSIowner]

Last night there was a horribly loud "Wahmwahmwahmwahm" noise from my passenger side wheel and it shook really bad. Its noticable when going straight, but when turning right it goes away completely.

Could this be a ball joint? The CV's were replaced 3 months ago. Could I have thrown some weights off of that wheel when I was going so fast? Does anyone know of a good, low priced shop in Ozark or Springfield?

 

[jtmcinder]

Assuming it isn't something really silly, like the lugs not being tight, it's probably the ball-joint or the wheel-bearing, with my money on the latter. In any event, lift that corner and start yanking.

 

[shift2drift38]

Yea deffinately get it jacked up, pull the tire and see what's going on. Check your tie rod ends as well, since it only seems to affect turning. If your ball joints are toast you'll notice a whole lotta grease everywhere around'm. By the sounds of it, after you take a look at it and if for some reason nothing "looks" out of whack, put your tire back on and move it left and right, shake it a little, see if you can "recreate" that noise and then go from there on finding the source. Best of luck to you!

 

[NoobTSIowner]

Someone had said it could be a CV shaft? I figured you guys know more about DSMs than the guys at 417Racing.com. But once it warms up a little today Ill definatly pull the tire off. on the ground i tried shaking it and nothing happened.

 

[HX35GSX]

I would suggest using a pry-bar when checking your ball joints. Might as well check your upper and lower control arms too.

 

[jtmcinder]

Good call on checking tie-rods, although those rarely go womp-womp-womp in time with ground speed. It also could be a CV joint, if the sound is speed-dependent, but those rarely are direction-of-turning dependent. Again, the first thing to check for a speed- and direct-of-turning-dependent noise is the wheel bearing. Number two is the ball-joint, but mostly because that could kill you. Then move on to tie-rods, CV joint, rotors, etc.