New year. New problems. Whirring noise when >35mph

[Chris]

2005 Dodge Neon SXT

I’ll apologize in advance for this lengthy post but it all contains specific information to the problem.

Alright, so you guys helped narrow down a noise once before (driver side outer tie rod end, alignment and a passenger side control arm bushing) last year, and now on the same side we have a new noise/problem. Now, I’m fairly certain that this is two separate problems with one of them being motor mounts…

Alright, so about ~5 months ago I made a post on here and it definitely was the motor mounts (left-side when looking at engine compartment) which two separate mechanics said “don’t worry about them, they are still fine”. So I figured if two mechanics didn’t want my money, they must be “alright” since outside of the middle mount the top and bottom are fairly easy to replace it’s just been too damn cold for me to replace them myself even though the rubber is definitely broken on two of the posts.

Around the same time I was noticing that whenever I would be going over bumps SLOWLY I could feel (and hear obviously) the bump through the steering wheel as if it was two pieces of metal banging off each other not clicking or rattling just a quick hard “bump” and that was it, especially over railroad tracks. To a non-mechanic I would literally say it seems like something is loose, which of course doesn’t mean something is loose but still.

So about ~2 months ago I started noticing a whirring sound coming from the front-end of the vehicle when going above 45mpg, which I swear sounded like it was the driver side. I took it to a THIRD mechanic about 4 weeks ago who took it for a drive with me, I drove halfway and he drove halfway back doing crazy pulls left and right at about 50mph and when we go back said “Well, I wouldn’t worry about a tire falling off or anything, the car is 7 years old sometimes you have to deal with noise” and I was like…

Then I’d swear no more than a week later I was making a left turn (I understand the whole left turn = right-side parts) and heard two quick clicks/clunks/grinds and then it seemed that the noise was now noticeable at 35mph and above. I know a click/clunk/grind all sounds different but just follow me.

Outside of that ONE left turn a month ago that could possibly be considered a click, I’ve literally never heard or felt anything through the steering wheel but thump/clunks when going over bumps slowly (possibly motor mount related since I don’t really feel or hear it if I have any decent amount of speed?) and whirring sounds when going over 35mph. I have heard of some motor mount situations where those thump/clunks where caused by the engine actually hitting off the frame(?) but I don’t think I’d be lucky enough to have that be the cause of the whirring.

The whirring sound really does sound almost (through what you can hear from YouTube video sound) exactly like ETCs wheel bearing video sound at speed but…

The real kicker? I’ve tried narrowing it down to what side it is outside of jacking it up since I’m confident it’s the driver side but I’ve tried narrowing it down by actually hitting bumps with the driver or passenger side and can’t reproduce it. It almost seems as if both sides have to actually hit the bump to have it happen although lately it HAS been coming from hitting the right side.

The only other thing I’ve tried is having the key in the ON position and turning the wheel all the way left-right makes no noise outside of if I quick “snap” the steering wheel left there’s a quick, faint click. It certainly could always be like that and it’s just me trying to pull my hair out over the problem but yea. I had the wife do it while looking under the hood and both axles shafts look like they move the same when she was doing it but again, I haven’t jacked the car up.

Realistically, I’m rather concerned that with my shit luck something (WHATEVER it is, bearing, axle, ball joint) in the next week something catastrophic is going to break while the wife is driving it. :-/

So overall, nothing has broken on the car and I plan on taking it to yet another mechanic this weekend to finally see what it could possibly be but with the mechanic I took it to when it was the outer tie rod a year ago telling me I needed a new CV, Rear Hub Assembly w/ Bearing, Control Arm with Ball Joint and wanting to whack me $800… I don’t feel like throwing parts at the thing which I’m fairly certain he was going to be doing…

[b]Questions:
[/b]
Can bad motor mounts (from what I’ve seen a 05 Neon has top/middle/bottom, the middle is the pita to get to) cause all of the symptoms above? Can it cause the thump/clunk when hitting bumps as well as the feeling of it in the steering wheel?

Do bad bearings “move” when hitting bumps to where it would make an audible thump/clunk as well as feeling it in the steering wheel or just a whirring sound at speed?

If there’s nothing but those thump/clunk/whirring sounds when driving over bumps, even during turns should the car HOPEFULLY last another week? 🙁

Finally, and this is my biggest fear, can the symptoms above be caused by any part that with the symptoms above break shortly? I’m (and I’m a layman when it comes to replacing parts outside of brakes/rotors) fairly confident it’s motor mounts and bearing simply from hearing it but without actually seeing anything yea.

Topic

[Chris]

Quick edit: While I can’t find anything near the size of this for my car, it almost sounds what this sounds like but a tad deeper, almost as if there’s “weight” being added onto it which would make sense when the car is on the ground. I’m pretty sure the only thing close to that on a 05 neon is the bushing/link? I’ll have to take a look when the wife gets home.

Either way, it sounds like this, deeper but essentially the same… almost like something is ready to fly through the hood.

[video width=550 height=309 type=youtube]dJAU2XKhG4A[/video]

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