Hoping someone knows what this is.

Almost every time I begin to drive off, or after a few yards, the passenger front side emits a "CLUNK", semi-loud metallic sound. Almost sounds like something clicking into place.

I thought I'd licked it when I upgraded the bushings in my FCM tophats, but nope, it's back.

 

brake pad shifting? dunno......i know mine does it.

 

Going straight, turning? Maybe the sway bar shifting?
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end link?

 

Questions:

1: Is this after backing up and then going forward?
2- Are you turning one way or the other?
3- Does it do it when everything is cold, or after warming up?
4- Are you straightening the steering wheel?

Part of nailing this noise is trying to establish conditions.

 

You mean outer tie rod end? Could be, if there is any turning of the steering wheel involved.

 

It does that too, this sounds a bit worse.

Usually when turning slightly, yep. Dunno about it being the sway bar though.

I wouldn't think so. Endlinks are RB. Unless maybe there's some slack that allows an endlink to clunk around?

It does it sometimes in reverse. Today it did it after pulling forward out of the space I'd backed into earlier that day.

IIRC, most of the time I'm turning to the right.

When everything's cold.

Actually, I'm usually beginning to steer when it happens.

Both outers are new as of a couple weeks ago, and the symptoms existed before I changed them.

 

Jack up your car in the front. With both wheels off the ground, grab the top and bottom of each tire and firmly push and pull to feel any looseness. Do the same thing to each tire but grabbing them front to back.

You should either feel everything is solid (normal) or you should feel looseness somewhere.

I would also check the wheel lug nut torque. In fact if all else is ok, I would remove the wheels and make sure that they are making good contact on the rotors (remove possible rust if present) and retorque.

 

To check the balljoints, I presume?

 

Yes, top to bottom you are checking the ball joints. Front to back you are checking the tie rods (inner and outer) and the rack and pinion itself (including mounts).

 

Tried it out, there is a definite click when pulling out on the bottom of the wheel and pushing the top in. Thanks!

 

old, worn out alignment bolts or bushings.

 

I would remove the wheel and check for rust build up and proper seating of the wheel before doing anything else and then recheck.

Is it on the same side that you are hearing the noise?

 

Yes.

 

This requires two people; while someone moves the wheel back and forth to get the noise to occur, another person gets under the car and puts their hand on different components to feel which one is the one causing the noise.

 

So I mentioned this to Qckslvr and he immediately thought it might be the upper caliper slide causing the caliper to hang up, and he was right! Very uneven pad wear and blown calipers were just two of the things we found in there..