Clicking in steering wheel

[Justin Imel]

Hey guys,

So I have two cars, a 2001 Grand Prix with 42k miles and a 2005 Aveo with 110K miles.

I noticed in my Grand Prix that when I rock the steering wheel back and forth when the car is off I can get a very slight amount of play and a clicking noise. The key is in the ignition so it isn’t the steering lock. I lifted it off the ground and tied the steering wheel so it didn’t move and wiggled the tires back and forth on both sides and I can feel the slight click. I was questioning if it was an intermediate shaft issue that the Grand Prix’s tend to have.

Well this week I replaced both inner and outer tie rods on the Aveo. The outer tie rod boots were gone and the inners literally flopped down with no resistance. I did the same process and noticed It too had a little click on both wheels going back and forth.

Both are extremely slight in this play. I can’t really feel the tire move when I do it but if I put my hand on the inner tie rods of either car on either side I can feel the click.

The suspension under the Grand Prix looks brand new. It was my grandparents and it sat in a garage for most of its life as a second car that was barely driven.

Having two cars doing the exact same thing… Before I go swapping parts unnecessarily, is this normal? Neither car wanders on the road at all. The Grand Prix was aligned a few months ago and the Aveo was aligned today and nothing was mentioned about it. I’m just wondering if I being too sensitive about it.

Topic

[college man]

What I would do is have a helper turn the wheel to replicate the clicking
and check the intermediate shaft joints to see if that’s the culprit.

[Justin Imel]

Yeah it’s either in the intermediate or the rack in both cases. I think the intermediate is the culprit. I’m thinking about leaving it though.

[Author]

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