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:S I have a problem with a Ford Focus Estate (2008). When I turn the wheel ever so slightly to the right I start to hear a thudding noise – this thud is timed to the wheel speed so the faster the speed the more frequent the thudding. The thud is like driving over the white lines on the road, it is definitely not a clicking sound.
I have had all the wheels balanced and aligned, replaced the suspension drop links and have just replaced both front drive shafts – but no change. I am running out of ideas any suggestions most welcome
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You may have a front strut spring broken or seized strut bearing.. suspension would need to be address.
Need to figure is the noise coming from the left or right side.
A video with the noise would help
Will try to make recording of the sound. It is very obvious and sounds a bit like a flat tyre. Appears to come from right hand front (drivers side).
Have had car on jacks and no obvious wheel wobble when testing wheel bearings but perhaps need to apply more force to see if any ball joints worn.The driver side is the left side and passenger is right. if you look at the car from the front or the rear ….. left is left and right is right…
To test the ball joint and tie rod you need to make sure you lift the car on the lips (the same way you lift the tire when you replace a flat on the side of the road) that way the suspension hang loose and you can tell if the ball joint are worn. If you lift it just under the control arm… there is weight on the ball joint and you can test it.
Now that I think again about your first post… the noise you describe lead me to think it’s a wheel bearing. Let say you are changing lane from the left to the right … it would make noise… then go away the other way around … The wheel bearing might feel good when you perform a front end check … but might fail anyway.. Best way to test those is to get both front wheel off the ground and make sure you use jack stand.. get somebody to drive the vehicle to let say 70kph + and get a sthetoscope on the knuckle close to the axle.. compare left to right … you will be able to tell which one is the noisy one.
The first suspect is tires but I would also inspect the inner fender liners to see if they are making contact with the tire as you turn. More information and videos on how to diagnose a problem like this here.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car
Good luck and keep us posted on what you find.
I have made a recording of the thudding sound, hopefully you can play it on Windows Media Player. Video picks up thudding noise as car is driven around a large roundabout. When wheel is turned to the right the thudding starts, when it is turned back to left the thudding stops. I did notice that lower level thudding does occur when wheel is also turned to the left but only when turn is sharp.
Hope this helps with diagnosis.You can upload the video to YouTube and then post the URL in your post here and we’ll be able to watch it right on the forum.
I have uploaded the video to YouTube – http://youtu.be/sU0Z7Y6-EQk. My first video so excuse the quality.
I would first try rotating the tires to see if the noise changes or goes away. If it does, it’s a tire issue. If not, it may be a wheel bearing issue as suggested. Details can be found in this article.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car
Keep us updated.
Eventually found the cure – it was the left wheel bearing!! There was no play in the bearing and all the garages I took it to said they couldn’t detect the problem. The one small clue was that when I took the drive shaft out of the bearing there was an orange residue on the splines – I think I read something on your website about this indicating a faulting joint or something.
The bearing is now changed and guess what no thudding sound !!
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