Calling drivetrain Gurus. Help with drivetrain noise I think.

[mike96]

Ok. Did a bit of looking around and haven’t really found a good solid answer to my question. I just recently got my car put back together and now I am trying to track down all the little thumps and bumps. I got quite a few of them taken care of but now I am trying to hunt down the last one or two and am not having any luck. The noise I am looking for starts at about 50MPH and is a very low tone thump that is very in-consistent. It doesn’t affect handling but seems to be affected by it (it gets louder when you turn to the right). At first I thought it may have been a loose bolt but after taking the wheel off twice now and having put a wrench on every nut and bolt I can find I don’t think that is the case and CV noise is normally a lot more consistent than this noise and normally a clicking noise rather than a thump/thud. I just got back from having it on a frame lift and went over the entire car shaking, pulling, tugging, and twisting everything i can think of under the car I have came down to two possibilities.

1. Shocks, Yes I bought them used they look brand new and I was told that they had less than 1K in mileage on them I won’t rule out the possibility that at least one is bad.

2. drive train noise (rear diff and front transfer case specifically) while I was under the car shaking and twisting things around I took notice of a substantial thump/clack coming from both components as well as a considerable bit of slop. Is there any way to check short of removal/disassembly to tell if they are within factory specs?

 

[jtmcinder]

As soon as I read "gets louder when I turn to the right" I started thinking wheel bearing.

 

[dsmdeliveryboy]

As soon as I read "gets louder when I turn to the right" I started thinking wheel bearing.

Bingo, same thing. Or a sway bar end link.

 

[mike96]

I wouldn’t have associated the clunking noise with a bad wheel bearing. All the cars I have had that had a wheel bearing go bad either made a noise like a truck that had swampers on it or would get a grinding noise when you turned the corner from the rotor rubbing agents the caliper, caliber bracket, or dust shield. My Subaru goes thunk in the back end because it is a known issue with the struts, they have some plastic part in them that wears out and causes it to thunk when is compresses. I am planning on replacing all 4 wheel bearings at the same time when I get the cash together, guess I will start doing them one at a time as I get the cash and see what happens. I already jacked the car up and put a wrench on everything I can get a wrench on and none of the bolts/nuts are loose and when I shook and wiggled everything the wheel didn’t feel like it had any excessive wobble to it.