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This clank or clunk or whatever is driving me nuts
It sounds like it's coming from the the right rear wheel area. It's equally obvious in or out of gear. It varies with speed, and once you're going fast enough it either disappears or it simply becomes inaudible. When I jack the car up and spin the wheel, there is nothing. I tried using the jack to load the suspension while the car was on stands, spun the wheel...nothing. Lowered it and went for a drive...plain as day. Remember that drop link hitting my fuel line protector? I am pretty sure that's not it, it doesn't look like it can hit that unless the car is jacked up enough for the wheel to hang down, and my sway bar seems very solidly mounted with no play in any direction it shouldn't have. I can't see anything untoward when I look, although I'm not expert on that stuff. I did notice some sort of soft washer thing in the shock that is loose, but I don't know if it's supposed to be that way. I tried to get a picture, it's the little disc on the shaft of the shock, but it doesn't seem like it could possibly cause this problem, especially since it is related to wheel rotation. Pardon the vertical camera, etc in the vid below...the point of course is the audio. If you crank it up you can hear it pretty easily.
Piece in question is right above second visible spring loop from the bottom. I can move it around with my fingers. Maybe that's perfectly fine....
Well I had a similar issue that was caused by a weak spring in a brake pad mounting, which allowed the pad to rattle. But yours sounds much louder than that. Try whacking the wheel/tire and see if you can get that rattle when it's not moving.
I've since replaced my brake pads and the problem is gone.
It seems fully dependent on wheel speed...well, vehicle speed. I have not been able to get any sort of bad sounds when the car is stationary and on a stand, and I spin the wheel. But...safulop may be onto something here. This doesn't just happen when I have brakes partially applied or something, but one thing I haven't tried with the car jacked up is spinning the wheel with some brake pressure applied, etc. Something to try.
Ducman82, if it were a CV joint wouldn't it most likely make the sound when I spin the wheel by hand? I'm trying to figure out what is different about rolling down the road vs me spinning the wheel by hand. I thought...loaded suspension...but using a jack to push on it made no difference.
Yeah, the brake pad rattle did not require the brakes to be depressed, it just liked to bounce around all the time. But only at lower speeds when you get longer throw-out from the shocks over bumps. At higher speed the rattle went away.
I hate to appear to insult you with the obvious, but I heard a similar noise when I went to help a friend's child one night and test drove a car that had only one of five lug nuts left - two lugs had sheared and were missing, two nuts spun freely but to no effect and #5 was loose but tightenable. The car wasn't going anywhere safely without repairs. Not even around the parking lot again.
I'm embarrassed to say I didn't notice this until the second exterior visual inspection, after the test drive and a flashlight inspection of the undercarriage. I felt like the guy who calls tech support b/c his computer's unplugged. Basics first.
I've missed so many obvious things that it's impossible to insult me with suggestions . I was rocking the wheel pretty hard, looking for play, so I don't think it could be that, but I didn't actually check lug nut tightness... So I will.
Axel flange bolts will be checked as well... Thanks for the suggestions.
I really want to drive it but I'm thinking i probably shouldn't until I at least determine the cause...
-- The bottom pin/bolt through the uspension is not installed correctly (washers in wrong place) and/or not tight enough. That pin clamps all the metallic bits together, making a compressed sandwich of the flat washers, the swing arm, the shock inner bushing, the hub carrier with two conical washers centering. We've also seen where the bottom of the shock is rotated 180º so the slanted eye is facing the wrong way. Has that pin been loosened or removed/replaced? Shock looks original and it's leaking, so likely it hasn't been removed lately.
-- The brake disk is hub-centric, and is held to the drive stub axle flange with a couple screws. The screws just index it to keep the disk from moving when you change a wheel. If the disk does move and crud gets between the disk hat and the axle flange, it can make the disk wobble some too. Disk should be clamped in securely when the wheel nuts are tight though.
-- Do you have spacers on the rear? We had an interesting episod with a guest car where the adapters weren't torqued correctly before the wheel was installed and torqued. Caught a minute down the road, re-tightened and all was fine.
-- CV joint noises change with power applied/no power appled. If the boots are intact there is likely no worries.
-- The torque on the Allen capscrews that hold the inner CV joints to the gearbox drive flanges is signifcant, and it's tough to get it right without some creative use of a few long extensions. If they aren't tight enough, they will make noise right up to the point where the bolts are all scattered on the highway, and the halfshaft is flapping around on the muffler.
-- Rear wheel bearings make a groaning noise that usually gets louder with speed. If they are really bad, you can hear clicking and more as the wheel rotates. You might need load on the tire (vs just adding load to the suspension) to duplicate the noise while stationary.
-- The nut on the end of the stub axle needs a lot of torque (320+ lbs/ft IIRC), and the nut is a one-time-use piece per the factory. From high school geometry and physics and when I can't find the big torque wrench, if I put 180# dr bob on a horizontal bar at (required torque in lbs/ft)/180 feet from bolt center, torque should be right. Substitute 336 for torque, your weight for the 180, and multiply the result by 12, you can put a bit of tape on a breaker bar that many inches from the center of the socket as a target for the middle of your foot. Loose nut there often means the wheel bearing is damaged, so double check the bearing and seals if you find the nut less than full tight.
-- Rear caliper is not secured to the carrier correctly.
Ooh, lot of things to check in there...some of which I will have to figure out how to do. FWIW, the boots all look decent (I was surprised, actually). Even without looking at the shock, I know for a fact I need new ones, I'm guessing checking your first item above would take me most of the way to getting that shock off, so at that point perhaps I should just do them. I was hoping to postpone that expenditure but...maybe won't be possible.
I may be wrong, but I believe why you may not get any sound with wheel raised and turning is because of orientation of bearings in the shafts. When on ground they ride/turn in a certain spot. When raised that spot changes (maybe to non worn area) and sounds o.k.. If this is correct then removal/cleaning/ regreasing is needed after checking.
The initial check on the bottom pins is visual to make sure the pieces are in the right places. If that section hasn't been disassembled, just verify that the torque on the nuts is adequate to hold it all together. Takes a few minutes while you have it off the floor. I don't have links handy to point you to pics of the assembly, but someone will jump in I'm sure. Exact symptom for loose is a car that moves sideways a little as you go on and off the gas, in addition to the noise. The bottom of the carrier is moving laterally, changing camber and toe as it moves. You know it when it's happening...
Hmmm...I haven't noticed that behavior...I can't say for sure one way or the other if that stuff has been changed or messed with or not. I suspect it has not, but I could certainly be wrong.
I am only suggesting this idea as a last resort, if you really think the clunking noise is suspension related, spray everything with a cheap spray paint, drive it before it cures, and look for any rub marks
Last edited by OTR18WHEELER; 12-14-2014 at 07:39 AM.
Reason: bad link
12-13-2014, 06:21 PM
This clank or clunk or whatever is driving me nuts
. I was rocking the wheel pretty hard, looking for play, so I don't think it could be that, but I didn't actually check lug nut tightness... So I will.
