Clunking noise and wobbly wheel Toyota Yaris/Echo

[Andre]

Hi ETCG forum,

I bought another Yaris (aka Vitz/Echo in non-UK markets) and sometimes when I steer it makes a clunking noise.
It didn’t do it during the test drive (obviously) and I couldn’t replicate it for my dad to hear.

When I heard it, I immediately thought CV joints but when I jacked it up I noticed one of the front wheels seems to wobble when I push/pull on the sides/top/bottom of the tyre. So I thought it might be the ball joint or wheel bearing. Visually, the ball joint looks fine.

The CV boots and driveshafts look clean, not brand new but the CV boots aren’t ripped, the rubber is in good condition.

The car doesn’t really rumble at speed but I can’t tell because I’ve only had it for a week and don’t know what normal sounds are and Eric says that if a wheel bearing is bad it can go quiet after a while. Also it has cheap tyres on it and they might be noisy.

It wobbles exactly like Eric shows in the 4Runner wheel bearing video. (That car also had bad driveshafts though).

My question is, can a bad CV cause that kind of wobble?

Am I looking at replacing a number of things here? If so, which should I start with?

Topic

[Its me]

Couple things.

Side to side movement on a wheel is generally an issue with the tie rods.

Up and down is generally an issue with the lower ball joint.

You can’t tell if a cv axle is worn by looking at it especially with the boots on. A clunk can be a worn inner cv joint. Especially when you hear a clunk on initial acceleration or initial deceleration. Clicking noises when turning are generally a worn outer cv joint. The bad cv joint is the one making noise on the opposite side of the turn.. i.e. turning left makes the noise , then the right cv axle is the bad one.

Clunk going over bumps many times can be worn out/damaged sway bar links.

I would inspect the cv axle nut to ensure it is on tightly. . You may have an issue with the hub/bearing. Not hard to replace the bearing if you have a press.

Good luck

Karl

[Andre]

Thanks for the reply.

I think the outer joints must be worn out, it makes noises when steering full-lock in both directions but only one side has significant movement in the wheel.

It doesn’t make any noise accelerating/decelerating or going over bumps. It has new end links on it too.

[Author]

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