Crunch on sharp wheel turn

steagle

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when i'm backing out of a parking space and cut the wheel all the way i am getting a lot of crunching/creaking sound in the front. happening on both sides now. sounds like it is coming from the axle area. could this be the lower front ball joints?
 
when i'm backing out of a parking space and cut the wheel all the way i am getting a lot of crunching/creaking sound in the front. happening on both sides now. sounds like it is coming from the axle area. could this be the lower front ball joints?

I would say so.
 
i would second that. put it on a lift and push the wheel up and if there is any play then you need new ball joints
 
i'll bring it to a lift early next week and see if there's any play with the wheels. the noise is kind of funky. like crumpling up a paper bag. i guess it could be a series of pops. but only happens when cutting the steering wheel hard, don't hear it when driving normal or braking.
 
update: when i hit a bump, for instance going out of my driveway where it dips down about a foot and then raises back up to street level, i am hearing something in the front end... almost like the fender is scraping the ground, but there is no contact. i recently had a new scratch protector put on the bottom of the fender, old one was cracked and split in half. started hearing this sound soon after the replacement, but it might not be related. anyways, weird that i'm hearing both these sounds now at the same time... sounds like grit when i'm turning sharp and sounds like something is coming away from the fender on bumps. sway bar maybe??
 
that sound like a paper bag makes me think the inner fender wells , the plastic pieces may be loose which rubs on wheels during big bumps or severe turns.....JAT
 
Have someone else go up and down that part of the driveway.

Im wondering, could it be possible that it is rubbing it cause of the possible problem with the suspension?
 
Have someone else go up and down that part of the driveway.

Im wondering, could it be possible that it is rubbing it cause of the possible problem with the suspension?

If it was that big of a problem he wouldn't be able to drive it. :eek:

Get under the car and pry at the balljoints with a pry bar or really big screwdriver. That usually easiest to do when the car is of the ground. Also get a huge pair of channel locks and try to compress the balljoints. If you see any play in either direction they're probably bad.
Have someone else back the car out of the driveway while you look in the wheel wells and try to see if the tire is rubbing the liner somewhere. (or have someone else look while you drive, don't matter)
 
Even if its rubbing the inside of the liner as the wheels turned:confused:
 
Assuming that the liner is loose then it wouldn't take much movement of the suspension at all to rub it. But when the liner is installed properly and is in its normal place the wheel would have to move about 3/4" maybe more to start rubbing the liner. 3/4" of movement is more than a worn balljoint. You're getting into broken part territory at that point.

Here's what a broken ball joint looks like... Lower:
hondaballjoint1.jpg


Upper:
2522549289_2259e8e397.jpg



Edit: the possibility of a bad wheel bearing just crossed my mind.
 
+1, when mine went bad it kinda sounded as he is describing. easy to check to
 
you know what, the liner in front of the passenger side wheel was lose for some time because of that split valance on my bumper it was screwed into:
doh1.jpg

you could put your hand in front of the wheel and move that plastic piece around no problem. driver side was fastened tight. i checked the piece when i got the valance replaced and it wasn't moving around too much, just a little, wasn't creating noise so i lived with it. but that's a good idea to check on that because it could be loose again and rubbing the wheels on turns. could explain the crunchy aspect of the sound rather than something like a squeak or whine which i would normally associate with steering problems.

will do the bumper scrape check too. i really don't think it's scraping tho. it feels like the entire bumper is sagging and making a loud creak sound for a second then it's back in business when i level out. i've scraped the car on crazy bumps before and this is not that kind of sound or feel. but we'll see i could be totally mistaken....
 

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