Does your 2G creak and pop when you turn the wheel ?

[EclipseTrbo420A]

If im sitting still and turn the wheel I can her like a creaking sound followed by a pop from the driverside wheel well it seems. I checked the play in the wheel and my up and down ( 12 and 6 ) is pretty solid but my 3 and 9 have minor play. Im affraid to drive the car guys This sound is not pretty, it almost makes me cringe when I turn the wheel. It also happens when Im moving and deaccelerating. Im lost, becuase everything looks good. Whats weird is that it has been doing this for awhile now but has deffinately gotten worse recently.

I have recently replaced both sides CV axles, lower COMPRESSION ball joint ( curved arm ) on the driver side and replaced all the boots on the driver side ie. upper balljoint, tie rod , lower ball joints. Everything looked good, but it still creakes and pops.

Could it be inner tierod ends? Sway bar links? is this problem characteristic of a bad steering rack?

Thanks for the help.

 

[My96AWD]

Mine does the same thing. Not sure why either.

 

[EclipseTrbo420A]

Mine does the same thing. Not sure why either.

Yea I have been searching for the last couple of days and still I dont know whats wrong and go figure stupid me dedided to port my turbo, run my 2 inch dump tube back into the exhaust way farther down and tap my J pipe in the midst of all these problems. I cant leave well enough alone haha.

Whats does yours sound like ? can you feel it in your gas pedal ? Mine does it about 4 times in each direction. Is yours like this also?

All I know is it cant be healthy for the car. Its sounds terrable. I had a lose stabilizer plate under the car and I tightend that up but I havnt gotten it on the road again yet because of the turbo.

 

[wret]

Get under there and tug, twist and turn things until you find it. Loose steering parts can be annoying at the least and life threatening at the worst. Be glad yours is giving you warning signs. Sometimes they don't.

Here's a list of joints to check (not counting the wheel bearings)
-Compression arm ball joint (lower)
-lateral arm ball joint (lower)
-Upper control arm ball joint
-Outer tie rod end
-Inner tie rod end
-Sway bar end link
-Shock upper mount

Looseness in most of these can be detected by moving the steering or tugging on the wheel. When you figure out which motion makes noise or encounters slack, get underneath and use your eyes, ears or hands to find it. The two hardest to diagnose are the inner tie rod ends, because you can't see them, and the sway bar end links because they may not make the sound unless moving on the road.

 

[EclipseTrbo420A]

Get under there and tug, twist and turn things until you find it. Loose steering parts can be annoying at the least and life threatening at the worst. Be glad yours is giving you warning signs. Sometimes they don't.

Here's a list of joints to check (not counting the wheel bearings)
-Compression arm ball joint (lower)
-lateral arm ball joint (lower)
-Upper control arm ball joint
-Outer tie rod end
-Inner tie rod end
-Sway bar end link
-Shock upper mount

Looseness in most of these can be detected by moving the steering or tugging on the wheel. When you figure out which motion makes noise or encounters slack, get underneath and use your eyes, ears or hands to find it. The two hardest to diagnose are the inner tie rod ends, because you can’t see them, and the sway bar end links because they may not make the sound unless moving on the road.

Ok since I know alot of those items are beat im going to start replacing things in order from cheapest and not pull my car from my driveway till its gone.

On that side theres a new hub already as of 1000 miles ago? along wiht a new compression arm. My stock one was murderd. My lower lateral arm I havnt checked, but the boot looks great- im getting out there today. My swaybar links are destroyed completly ( I hate those things ) Ill pick up 2 of those at napa today. My tie rods have minor play so will those creak and pop like that ? My upper ball joint looked great when I did the write up on how to replace 2g torn ball joint boots in the tech section. COuld it be bushing at all? Should I check for those? Thanks guys. Another thing is when I get it in the air an turn the wheel Its not nearly as bad almost to the point I would think nothing is wrong.

 

[wret]

The creaking you describe is typical of ball-type joints, including tie rod ends and swaybar links, when the metal to metal surfaces lose lubrication. This eventually evolves into a "pop" or general looseness as mechanical clearance open up. The creaking often goes away when you un-weight the suspension but you should still be able to detect the looseness.

 

[dyno_detour]

Just a warning. About 7-10 days before my right front lower arm balljoint gave out, my car was making kind of a screeching/popping sound when I turned the steering wheel.

Trust me you don't want your tire sitting at a 45 degree angle. (Like mine was)

 

[cc4ever]

You said that you replaced ball joints, so it should be solid at 12 and 6. You said it was a little loose at 3 and 9. When checking this way, you need to have the car in the on position so the steering wheel is unlocked. Then almost jiggle it side to side. If you feel that something is loose that way, have a friend try and see if there is play in the outer while jiggling the tire. If it is tight then try checking the inner. For the sway bar and the links, just give all if a hard tug and tap on all of it with a mallet. If there are no odd noises then your sway bar is solid and not cracked, and you links are good. What i personally think this could be is your struts. Check for broken springs and bad bushings.

 

[Turbo Talon 111]

mine would make a terrible creaking/screaching noise anytime i turned the wheel. it was much worse the slower i was driving and could barely tell at highway speeds.
i wasn't by my garage where i could mess with it myself so i took it to a shop in the area. it ended up being that the ball joints just needed some grease. the shop used a syringe do put some grease in them and i haven't had a problem since. you may want to try something like that before you start just replacing parts. that method of diagnosing gets to be expensive.

also i did have the car up on stands in my garage trying to figure this out once. it was hard to pinpoint the location of the noise and i eventually thought it was the steering rack so i lubed that up a bit. amazingly it stopped making noises until i got out of town where its started up again and thats when i took it to the shop. i guess i managed to get some of the lube near the ball joints or put them in a position where they weren't squeeking for a short bit. the point here is that it was nearly impossible for me to tell where the noise was coming from while laying on the ground under the car. good luck.

 

[cc4ever]

EclipseTrbo420A said that he just had his balljoints replaced. They come pregreased, so that shouldn't not be an issue here, but still worth looking at.

 

[EclipseTrbo420A]

EclipseTrbo420A said that he just had his balljoints replaced. They come pregreased, so that shouldn't not be an issue here, but still worth looking at.

I just took a peak under the boot on my lower lateral arm and it looked good...clean grease and the ball was still nice and shiny. Im wondering if I should pop all of the ball joints from the hub and completly remove the boot and check for play that way.....

When removing my sway bar end links I tore the boots up pretty bad because those bastards dont like to hold the 14mm in place. The thing that gets me is it has done this for a year and 1/2 the poping noise, but there's so much in there I cant even think where to begin wiht out replacing parts. I might just throw it back together and go get a free diagnosis somewhere but I feel bad because they usually want you to fix it there.

There is a faint click when I turn the wheel while its in the air. Im almost 100% its comming from the inner tie rod boot. How do those go bad, I was looking at a new one for my car at work the other day and I cant see where it can go wrong ?

Theres so much to look at haha I have to go to work ( NAPA ) I might just pick up the sway bar end links to start with. Thanks guys and keep the sugestions comming.

When i figure this out they better make it a sticky, I have read countless threads and stull nothing is certain.

 

[ThunderValley]

Sounds like a CV joint could be bad. Check to see if the boot is torn, no grease equals worn parts. My buddies '91 AWD had the same problem and made the noises you describe. Jack the front up and see if the wheel rotates a bit back and forth without moving the axle. If there is alot of play there the CV is bad.

 

[cc4ever]

Inners don't really make poping noises that often, only in extreme cases, but if it was that extreme you would feel it when shaking the tire. And i guarantee that if you are not feeling any up and down movement in the tire and if it is greased, then the ball joints are good, don't waste your time with them. Check the sway bar and see if there is movement, also check the struts.

 

[EclipseTrbo420A]

Inners don't really make poping noises that often, only in extreme cases, but if it was that extreme you would feel it when shaking the tire. And i guarantee that if you are not feeling any up and down movement in the tire and if it is greased, then the ball joints are good, don't waste your time with them. Check the sway bar and see if there is movement, also check the struts.

Just last week I pulled the CV joint and re greased the inner...due to the grease slipping out of the cheap boot ring napa gave me. I know it did it again in the past few days but I haev hardly driven it, but remeber this creaking is an old problem gotten worse.

Ill go tug on the sway bar a bit...should it move at all? what am I looking for strut wise? I just put AGX's on wiht Eibach coilovers....but the problem has been here long before that.

Since I need sawybar links thats the first replacement and I just called norwin dodge and its 9 bucks a boot for the ball joints. Ill keep you guys posted.

 

[EclipseTrbo420A]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OEM-...ryZ33592QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Check that out, since napa doesnt sell them...is 29 cheaper thant he dealer ?>

I was thinking of dissconnecting the sway bar links and seeing if the noise goes away. you guys think that will work?

 

[No_Skillz]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OEM-...ryZ33592QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Check that out, since napa doesnt sell them...is 29 cheaper thant he dealer ?>

I was thinking of dissconnecting the sway bar links and seeing if the noise goes away. you guys think that will work?

That's $40 with shipping. I got mine $35 in hand at the dealer.

As for the squeaking: if nothing else is working for you, you might also want to consider the squeaking to be seperate problem. I sprayed all my suspension bushings down with some WD40 and they went away.

 

[EclipseTrbo420A]

That's $40 with shipping. I got mine $35 in hand at the dealer.

As for the squeaking: if nothing else is working for you, you might also want to consider the squeaking to be seperate problem. I sprayed all my suspension bushings down with some WD40 and they went away.

Today I looked at

Driver side:

Upper ball joint: looked good
Lower Lateral: looked good
Compression arm is 3 months old:good
Tierod ends: A: Outer is there B: Inner makes a click noise as i turn the wheel, but I have to find the spot where it click when turning and then stay there on the wheel moving it slightly back and forth.

Can you visually see a problem wiht a inner tie rod? If so Ill snip the bootring and examine it

With in the next couple of days I will be going to the U-Pull it and taking a new steering rack and pinion ( 15bucks ) Sway bar and end links ( 8 bucks ), and I will spray the crap out of the bushings wiht some Wd-40. My cars got 186,000 so im sure anything else with less miles will be better.

The sound is weird guys....it seems like it could be bushings resisting to move then poping in place and the fact that it does it 4 times in either direction is weird as well.

 

[EclipseTrbo420A]

Ok well I figured it out and it was nothing I though it woule have been.....

Over the last four days I have been deciding on what I need to buy first ball joints, steering rack tir rod ends...who knows?

In the very beginning of trying to find the problem I noticed my frame support piece was only half tight and even missing one bolt...I guess from the motor build just before I bought it. Anyway I tighted that up and also went to inspect the bushings and noticed the long bolt that holds the lateral arm ball joint was hand tight as well so i got out my torque wrence and tightend everything up....the only thing that kept the car on stans after that was the fact that is still clicked minor in the air.....forward to this morning I said ill take it to a shop to get a diagnosis and well I put it all together ( new proted turbo and 2 inch o2 custom dump tube ) fired it up and turned the wheels non popping at all...? so i drove around the block and made some turns and nothing soo THat was my problem just some loose bolts. Anyway, thanks for all the help guys.