it all started about a week ago i was heading home from work on the highway and all of a sudden i hear a strange noise coming from the front sort of like a popping/clunking noise but it was only on the curves at any speed. but now its also while im going straight or turning the noise is so bad that i stopped driving the car because it also shakes under acceleration. another thing today i moved it and the steering wheel got stuck when i turned to the left I need help trying to figure out what it is my friend said its the differential gone bad but i dont know want to hear other peoples opinions. thank you
Possibly the CV axle boot
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Monday, August 30, 2010 2:33 AM
Definitely sounds like a cv joint...the initial clicking/clunking you hear is the bearing inside the joint starting to dry and rub (you're hearing the metal to metal rubbing)...once you start hearing noise when driving in a straight line at a higher speed, the CV is toast.
Usually, if you turn to the right and hear the clicking, it's the left CV that is bad, and vice versa. Also jack up the car and look at the cv joints...there will most likely be a rip or tear in the outer boot, or it may be dislodged from where it attaches to the shaft, a look at the chassis and suspension around that CV, if you see a lot grease splatter around it, then you found your bad CV (the bearing is packed in grease, which is contained by the boot, so if the boot rips, the grease begins to fling out as the bearing spins...which in turns dries out, stops lubrication the bearing, and it starts to rub metal on metal, which is the noise you hear).
You can get cv joint rebuild kits in which you have to replace the bearing/joint and repack the grease, but honestly if you don't have much experience in that area, just buy a whole cv half shaft...doesn't cost much more and is pretty straight forward to replace, shouldn't take you more than 20-30 min to replace a whole half shaft.
Thank you guys for the help I will check it out again today hopefully its just the cv halfshaft
