- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 12 months ago by
.
-
Topic
-
Hello!
Hoping some one here can help me out, I have a 2003 Mustang GT for the past several years i’ve had this clunking noise when shaking the steering wheel left and right, the car shakes at highway speeds of 50 MPH and gets worst at higher speeds, I noticed it does it a bit more when letting off the gas ( not breaking simply letting off the gas ) My question is would the noise you hear in the video contribute to this shaking?Just for reference –
This shaking has been there for years prob as long as the noise, since then I’ve had new wheels and tires, several alignments done and shaking doesn’t seem to go away, most recently I replaced my shocks/struts.
I have lifted up the front end to see if the wheels move up/down left/right and nothing – i believe my tie rods are fine.any help would be much appreciated, thank you.
[video width=425 height=344 type=youtube]a_x5eEeOnjc[/video]
-
Replies
-
The vibration and noise are likely unrelated. Here’s info on both of those issues.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/determining-the-causes-of-vehicle-vibrations
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car
That said, check the shaft going from the steering wheel to the rack, that could actually be where your noise is coming from.
Good luck and keep us posted.
A noise that prominent should be fairly easy to find. It’s clearly in the suspension/steering, but its one of those problems that could be 6 different things, but without looking at each independently, its going to be more difficult to chase down. First thing I would try is the ‘touch test’ have someone move the steering like that and put your hand on different parts and you should be able to ‘feel’ that noise in the loose component.
You mention that you have no wheel assembly play.. so that *should* tell me that you have good inner/outer tie-rods.. did you try lifting up on the bottom of wheel with a long pry bar as its a few inches off the ground to check for balljoint play? anything that has direct rotation to the steering can be causing that noise. Do you have any noises when your driving straight going over bumps? Or is it just on turns? When you replaced the struts, did you replace the whole strut? or just had new struts put on the old spring/bearing plate?
As Eric stated, check the steering shaft for binding/looseness. I can barely see it in the video, but it looks to be tight. Check the u-joint and make sure it cannot be moved up and down.
If it were me, I would check for the following:
● Worn/loose lower control arms / bushings (check for cracks in the rubber bushings where they contact the k-member)
● Worn strut mount bearing plate (not as likely, especially with new struts – if they were replaced with them – but can cause a clunk on left/right turns.. but you should also be hearing a sound going over bumps on a straight road if that were the bad part.)
● Worn lower ball joints (do the test i mentioned above by jacking up the car a few inches off the ground and stick a long bar under the tire and see if there is any play in the lower balljoint as you do this.)
● Worn rack & pinion (not as easy to diagnose and i’ve personally never saw a worn pinion or rack.. but im sure it could happen.)
● Worn Rack & pinion bushings (or loose mounting bolts) (again, everything looks to be tight from the video)
● Have a helper hold each front tire and another person inside turn the wheel slightly and check for any looseness there.. that will check everything in the steering system from the front wheel to the steering wheel.. there should be no looseness at all, and no noise.
● Check to make sure that the bushings on the sway bar end links are tight and not deteriorated (they looked to be good on the video from what i could see.)
● Also another quick test you could do.. disconnect both tie-rod ends from the knuckles and do the same test and see if the noise changes any. If it is still there, it’s in the rack & pinion or steering shaft / bearing.
If you could get another video like that showing the tie-rod ends, balljoints, and around the tops of the struts, that would be helpful too. Internet diagnoses always complicates the process, but it can still be done.
We will get it figured out!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.