Front end noise when stopping or starting to go forward

[xirdneh]

my car has been making a non-metallic noise
its like a "thunk" with a "groan" on driverside
does it now and then when car starts moving from dead stop and when braking to a stop and visaversa
had Les Schaub check it out but could find nothing
i replaced both strut assemblies and that did not help
jacked up car and removed tire then tried to move things with crowbar but nothing was loose

[ARCHINSTL]

Control arm moving in frame? Are these bushings still OE?
Sway bar moving in control arm or at front mount?

OT, but I've been reviewing your youtube video of replacing the timing belt and front seals: Thanks - a great job!
Tom M.

[dlb]

how old is the CV axle?

[BaileySims]

^^ this was my issue with the strange noise. It wasn't old, I just forgot to place a cotter pin through the nut and it slowly started to get loose over time and make a weird sound on take off.

[xirdneh]

slept on it and woke up remembering a post about bad steering knuckle making noise
went out and wiggled it and it wiggled quite a bit
replaced it with a good used one and that fixed it

[dlb]

the bearing or ball joint must have been the problem then, right? depending on if you swapped the ball joint too -- i usually do.

[xirdneh]

i should have been more clear
it was the steering rack to steering wheel column "U" joint (connection point on driverside at top of rack)
after replacing it i drove abt 25 miles without a peep
that was to the Les Schwab shop where they were to do a front end alignment
right after the guy started he called me out to look at a problem
the right tire was set back 1 inch (aft ) further than the left tire
the only thing i could think of that might have caused that was the mud puddle i clipped three weeks ago that hid a pot hole
i have never slammed a pothole like that one, it really banged the car hard
so he did the best he could to align the front end
i also had the tires balanced cause it was shaking the steering wheel around 55 mph
turns out the pothole bent the aluminum alloy rim a bit too
but the car drives well now in spite of it all
time will tell if the offset tire wears faster than the others
i have a hunch the stableizer bar is bent as that would push the control arm back, someday i will check that
even though everything seems good enough there is a new noise in the front left area
a new softer sounding "thunck" every now and then

[Petros]

you will likely wear the tires faster, there was another forum memever who had similar damage, one front tire was about an inch further back in the wheel well than the other. He had hit one of those center lane divider curbs hard when making a left turn.

I drove it, and it was not very noticable while driving, but the displacment of the front tires were visible. I measured the frame and found it still fairly square, so it appears the cross member was pushed back on the sub frame. I think if you loosen the big bolts holding the cross member to the frame, and pull on the cross member with a winch or come-along, it could be brought back to even (than retighten the big bolts on the cross member). he had the alignment done anyway since I did not have time to fix it for him, and than he found new front tires wore out in less than 2000 miles.

So you should try and fix it.

[rer233]

Don't think it's going to be a bent sway bar- it's REAL tough to bend spring steel.
Had the same problem with a T4 I bought a few years back- the right front wheel would rub the inner fenderwell when the steering wheel was turned to full right lock and going over a bump (like backing out of my driveway.) Didn't really notice it 'till I put 185/70 14's on it. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the RF wheel was about 3/4" farther back than the LF. Also, the right side stiffener rod that runs from the back of the subframe to the unibody had a definite bow to it.

Figured I'd swap out the subframe with one out of my rusty '84- didn't make a difference. Looked closer and I could see some definite kinks in the unibody "frame rail" just forward of where it meets the firewall. Couldn't really see it from up top, but it was pretty obvious from under the car.

Didn't really want to go for a frame pull (had bad experiences in the past) so I decided to elongate the holes in the subframe where the right side mounting bolts go thru instead. I straightened the stiffener bar and kept elongating the subframe mounting holes 'till everything fit together. I then tack-welded washers to the subframe in the new position. removed the subframe and welded the washers in place. Re-installed the subframe, and set the toe with toe-sticks (don't have access to a REAL front end machine.) Worked real well, car goes straight, no pull, and tire wear seems OK (been 5k miles since repair.)

Hope this helps!

[marlinh]

Hey xirdneh, Thanks for sharing that. I have had a creak in the steering for a while that I couldn't figure out. There was a bit of play in the u joint. I just replaced it and the noise is gone. With the old joint out of the car I can't feel the play at all, and it feels smooth.

UPDATE: The noise went away for a bit and then came back. I finally narrowed it down to the strut tower. It seemed to be bent. I changed the complete strut with a spare that I had and the noise is finally gone.