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[video]https://youtu.be/ROLUkTCHgCc[/video]I have a long story so please bear with me, because it’s important to my problem.
I thank you all for the help.I bought a 95 Accord about 2 months ago. The night I bought it the steering felt off but not bad. I started inspecting the front end the next day and saw that there was tie rods grease everywhere, so I replaced them. Upon further inspection the tie rods were way too torqued too tight and the boots were smashed all the way. The car steered better but not great, I took the car for an alignment. They told me that my caster was way negative, and quoted me for ball joints.
I drove the car the next week on the highway and the car was atrocious. It wanted to crash at times and it scared the hell out of me. I was looking for the cause and discovered that the upper control arms were swapped. Not knowing what kind of condition the ball joints were in I opted to replace the upper arms. The ball joints were tightened like the tie rods were. I replaced the control arms and put them on the correct side, now the car steers perfectly. Didn’t go back in for an alignment, since the toe was correct and the car steered great.I drove the car to work and had a terrible intermittent vibration at highway speeds, the was also a clicking sound from around the center console area. I was told to check my axles, they seemed fine and the boots were in tact. So I disregarded them, and two days later the inner joint of the driver axle broke 30 miles from home. Towed it home and it sat for a week due to snow.
I finally got the axles replaced and the vibration was gone, and the car steered even better. There was a problem though. The lower ball joint nut on the passenger side didn’t feel right, but it tightened. So I didn’t drive the car hard like I usually do after a repair.
The next day the wife took the car to work since she doesn’t drive nearly as far, and I didn’t trust that nut so I worked a half day and went to pick up the car and replace the castle nut. Went to her work and when I hit the speed bump, the nut came off that ball joint, and it separated from the arm. The tire turned in and nothing broke. The nut was clean on the inside and the threads were coiled around the ball joint stud. The ball joint threads were nice and the ball joint wasn’t broken, so I replaced the nut and tightened it. The new nut had bite and bolted to the BJ stud nicely.
I drove the car nice and hard after that. No vibration but a weird click on the passenger side that was not consistent with anything. No play in the tires. The wife had been driving the car for the past two weeks and swears there is no clicking sound.
So come today I decide to drive it today and I don’t know what is wrong with her, but there is a definite clicking/popping sound. It only seems to happen when I hit a crack in the road. I can drive fast, over bumps, through dips abs the car is fine with no sounds, but I hit a crack in the road, not only does it make an audible click/pop but I can feel it in my feet. The sound comes from both sides, and It sounds deathly. Similar to clicking your tongue on the roof of your mouth is the best way to describe it and it only seems to happen when driving on a rough road. I took the car back home, I’m not having it break something on the highway again. While I was driving home I hit a smooth road and the sound was gone.
My wife says I’m crazy and she doesn’t hear it, I say she is deaf, because I can hear and feel it right underneath the dead pedal on the floor when the sound happens I feel a pop in the floor board.What could cause a popping sound only when hitting a crack in the road?
There is no play in the wheels when shaking them in either direction.I whipped out my phone to record the sound but my phone is making a popping sound itself and it didn’t catch my sound well. I am uploading it hopefully someone will hear it and help figure it out.
Please help. I bought this car to commute 60 miles to work each day and I don’t want to drive our new car that far anymore, I don’t want to pile up the miles on it, I would much rather drive the accord anyways.
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You state you lost the lower ball joint and the tire turned inward.
I would be looking at the CV axle and strut and spring for possible source to your noiseI don’t think the axle took any damage, we pulled it off and looked at the joints, they didn’t make any sounds, and didn’t have any play in the joint. I’m not saying that it is good, I just don’t think they are the cause. The clicking is out by the wheels though.
The struts are clearly old, but they handle the old school push test and pass.
Is there another way to test the struts?I am also going to try and tighten the bills that have been removed, in all the upper control arm anchor bolts, and the strut fork bolt and see if they are my issue as well.
Other than that I’m lost, when the suspension gets compressed the sound doesn’t happen, but when it’s just holding the car there is a popping sound.
I’m not disregarding the axles yet either, the sound I am hearing now is different from the one on the old axles.
Is the a way to see if the axles are at fault?
Last time I couldn’t figure out out until one broke.If you make a turn.. say a right, and you hear a clicking/popping sound.. it usually the left CV axle and vice versa for the other side.
Might also look at the wheel bearing.That’s why I disregarded the axles the first time. The click only happens while I’m goings straight down the road, quiet while turning. I even ripped through a corner trying to find out if the turns would make it happen. The old axles didn’t make sounds while turning either but the click was around the inner joint area before I replaced them.
The sounds are by the tires now, I’m thinking the lower ball joints are bad, but not showing any play.
The wheel bearings don’t feel bad when spinning the wheels by hand, and still no play. Could be wrong about that too.
I will check the axles after work, struts as well.
I am hoping that if I grab the knuckle I can reproduce the sound.Anything else I should check, could it be the sway bar or something not connected to the steering knuckle?
Might give a good once over on the steering rack look for leaks under the boots, check for play or excessive slop.
Sway bar links and bushing also.Thanks nightflyr, I’ll check the entire front end, bolts, bushings, axles, struts and links. I’ll get some muscle under there and try to find something loose.
If anybody has any other advice or anything, please let me know. At this point I will check everything.If there is no other advice I will go off what I have and post back with an update.
UPDATE:
I went to the car and started shaking and kicking, got my hands on everything under the car. I couldn’t find anything. I tightened the strut fork bolt and nut a little more but everything appears snug. I got the wife in the car and found a rough road. She finally heard my popping sound, but she said it’s coming from the dash. I hear it on both sides, but don’t feel it anymore. She felt around and said that she can feel a knock around the edge of the dash. I couldn’t feel it on my side though. After I left her at work I took the car for an extended driving it like I stole it session.
Same thing couldn’t feel it but it does kind of sound like it’s behind the dash on both sides.
I doubt something would be hitting the dashboard on both sides, only when running over cracks in the road. That sounds a little farfetched.I got a hold of the struts and they aren’t loose or anything, at least not by hand. I’m wondering if I’m hearing the mounts though.
I drove around my apartment parking lot because it is really torn up and recorded the sound again.
I have the camera pointed at where it sounds like it’s coming from and this time you can clearly hear it.
https://youtu.be/gNZSpUhDPYcCould there be a problem with the strut mounts that isn’t showing through the struts?
Other than that my only other idea is maybe my axles are bad.
Any other ideas?UPDATE 2: I checked the strut and motor mounts and they all check out. If I’m not mistaken I think that the lower ball joints have to be the culprit. I have checked everything else, but I haven’t jacked up the control arms to test. By deduction all that is left has to be the LBJ.
When all other possibilities have been eliminated, what your left with, however unlikely must be the truth.
Hi, firstly I’m not a mechanic but I love looking after my cars and I do what ever work I can on them.
So be gentle with me if my suggestion seems silly.
I’m in Australia and I have a 2005 Mitsubishi 380 with 340000 kilometers (Galant in the U.S. and both cars are almost identical).About a year back I had some front end work done. New camber pins, new struts, new bushes where required, new brakes and rotors.
After all this work I started getting a tapping in the front and strangely not over heavy bumps but only on the slight minor bumps.
I took it back to the people that did the work and they couldn’t find anything wrong but replaced the stabilizer bar bushes because they seemed
somewhat dry.
Still made the noise but though I suspected maybe drive shafts I was assured by everyone the shafts were fine.
I was also assured the car was safe though no one could figure out where the tapping was coming from.A couple of weeks ago I mentioned this to a mechanic friend who I did a favor for and he offered to chuck it up on the hoist for a look.
He found the tapping noise in less than a minute.
He pointed me to both sets of front brake pads just floating loose in the calipers just floating around tapping the mechanism as I drove along.
Apparently my pads not only need clips but need to be glued with a special brake pad adhesive. He took the pads out, applied the glue and the clips and, voila, the noise was gone.
It was driving me nuts for over a year, many mechanics had inspected everything under-car and found nothing then this guy found the problem in ten seconds and fixed it in five minutes.
Like I said I’m no mechanic so I’m just offering a suggestion but sometimes it’s some small silly thing that causes the most trouble.[quote=”ellesmere” post=163333]Hi, firstly I’m not a mechanic but I love looking after my cars and I do what ever work I can on them.
So be gentle with me if my suggestion seems silly.
I’m in Australia and I have a 2005 Mitsubishi 380 with 340000 kilometers (Galant in the U.S. and both cars are almost identical).About a year back I had some front end work done. New camber pins, new struts, new bushes where required, new brakes and rotors.
After all this work I started getting a tapping in the front and strangely not over heavy bumps but only on the slight minor bumps.
I took it back to the people that did the work and they couldn’t find anything wrong but replaced the stabilizer bar bushes because they seemed
somewhat dry.
Still made the noise but though I suspected maybe drive shafts I was assured by everyone the shafts were fine.
I was also assured the car was safe though no one could figure out where the tapping was coming from.A couple of weeks ago I mentioned this to a mechanic friend who I did a favor for and he offered to chuck it up on the hoist for a look.
He found the tapping noise in less than a minute.
He pointed me to both sets of front brake pads just floating loose in the calipers just floating around tapping the mechanism as I drove along.
Apparently my pads not only need clips but need to be glued with a special brake pad adhesive. He took the pads out, applied the glue and the clips and, voila, the noise was gone.
It was driving me nuts for over a year, many mechanics had inspected everything under-car and found nothing then this guy found the problem in ten seconds and fixed it in five minutes.
Like I said I’m no mechanic so I’m just offering a suggestion but sometimes it’s some small silly thing that causes the most trouble.[/quote]Thanks for the info I will have to check that out if I can’t find it.
I have another update.
I saw Eric’s video about diagnosing suspension noises, and noticed that I didn’t jack up by the control arms to properly check the lower ball joints, well I did just that a moment ago.
Jacked at the lower arm until the tire lifted off of the ground enough to get my hands under the tire. There was still no play, but I did hear a clunk!
I looked underneath as best as I could while making the clunk, but couldn’t see anything.What could cause a clunk when jacked by the control arms, but not clunk when jacked at the pinch welds?
[quote=”ellesmere” post=163333]Hi, firstly I’m not a mechanic but I love looking after my cars and I do what ever work I can on them.
So be gentle with me if my suggestion seems silly.
I’m in Australia and I have a 2005 Mitsubishi 380 with 340000 kilometers (Galant in the U.S. and both cars are almost identical).About a year back I had some front end work done. New camber pins, new struts, new bushes where required, new brakes and rotors.
After all this work I started getting a tapping in the front and strangely not over heavy bumps but only on the slight minor bumps.
I took it back to the people that did the work and they couldn’t find anything wrong but replaced the stabilizer bar bushes because they seemed
somewhat dry.
Still made the noise but though I suspected maybe drive shafts I was assured by everyone the shafts were fine.
I was also assured the car was safe though no one could figure out where the tapping was coming from.A couple of weeks ago I mentioned this to a mechanic friend who I did a favor for and he offered to chuck it up on the hoist for a look.
He found the tapping noise in less than a minute.
He pointed me to both sets of front brake pads just floating loose in the calipers just floating around tapping the mechanism as I drove along.
Apparently my pads not only need clips but need to be glued with a special brake pad adhesive. He took the pads out, applied the glue and the clips and, voila, the noise was gone.
It was driving me nuts for over a year, many mechanics had inspected everything under-car and found nothing then this guy found the problem in ten seconds and fixed it in five minutes.
Like I said I’m no mechanic so I’m just offering a suggestion but sometimes it’s some small silly thing that causes the most trouble.[/quote]Thanks for the info I will have to check that out if I can’t find it.
I have another update.
I saw Eric’s video about diagnosing suspension noises, and noticed that I didn’t jack up by the control arms to properly check the lower ball joints, well I did just that a moment ago.
Jacked at the lower arm until the tire lifted off of the ground enough to get my hands under the tire. There was still no play, but I did hear a clunk!
I looked underneath as best as I could while making the clunk, but couldn’t see anything.What could cause a clunk when jacked by the control arms, but not clunk when only jacked at the pinch welds?
I have a question.
If I only jack up the passenger side of my car and leave the driver side down, key in my pocket, there should be no steering movement, correct?I did just that and this is what I recorded.
https://youtu.be/yM7rvIQXq7sBad tie rod, or rack?
Steering doesn’t bind or anything.
I changed the inner tie rods, I was really sad to see that the rack was leaking. I think somebody here suggested that too. I think the inner rods were bad anyways.
Car drives like $#!+ now, need an alignment bad. I drove it from my moms where I worked on it and you can hear the tires scrubbing, but I think my sound is gone.
Thanks everybody for the help, I’m going to have to find a rack now.
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