Clunking from front when turning
02 October 2018, 09:33 PM
#1
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Clunking from front when turning
When I'm going round sharp corners slowly I get some clunking coming from the front of the car. It sounds more like it's coming from the front right, but it could be an illusion. I initially thought it was the driveshaft as it sounded related to the rotation of the wheels, so I fitted a new one; however, the noise is still there. I've also removed the suspension strut examine the top mount, but that doesn't seem to have any play in it, and rotates cleanly and quietly (I didn't remove the top mount as my spring compressors couldn't squish the spring enough to trust it). The wishbone, droplink and ARB bushes look OK, and don't seem to move excessively when wiggled.
So does this just leave the diff as a suspect, or could it be something else? I ought to get a spare pair of ears to listen from outside of the car to try an locate the sound more precisely.
The car is a 2005 blobeye WRX wagon with about 105k miles done.
So does this just leave the diff as a suspect, or could it be something else? I ought to get a spare pair of ears to listen from outside of the car to try an locate the sound more precisely.
The car is a 2005 blobeye WRX wagon with about 105k miles done.
03 October 2018, 08:15 PM
#3
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Thread Starter
I'm not getting any whirring either, hence me not considering the wheel bearing. Was there any obvious movement or noise when you wobbled the wheel when it was jacked up?
03 October 2018, 08:33 PM
#4
There was slight movement in the wheel when jacked up, but it had to be in the right place, if you rotated wheel slightly it would disappear. My local garage tried pointing it out to me as it was going to fail mot but when I asked them to show me they couldn't replicate it, so it passed! The bearing/hub failed about 500 miles later...yours may well be something different but the symptoms sounded familiar.
Chris.
Chris.
05 October 2018, 01:30 PM
#5
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I got someone to listen to the car while standing outside while I drove past them, and they reckoned the sound is coming from the rear left, rather than the front right. So either the acoustics from inside of the car are deceptive, or the rear is also bad. I might stick some microphones down there to have a closer listen.
Just been checking youtube videos for bearing removal guides. Looks like I need to buy some tools to add to my collection.
Are there any makes (or retailiers) of bearings to avoid?
Just been checking youtube videos for bearing removal guides. Looks like I need to buy some tools to add to my collection.
Are there any makes (or retailiers) of bearings to avoid?
05 October 2018, 02:30 PM
#6
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do the repair myself so was done at the Subaru dealer, which cost a bomb as had a service inc cam belt and new brake pads... Think it was about 2k all in - ouch! Look on ICP for parts (see link).
https://www.importcarparts.co.uk/parts?cat=96&sub=183&sec=385&var=39&dc=y
Chris.
https://www.importcarparts.co.uk/parts?cat=96&sub=183&sec=385&var=39&dc=y
Chris.
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18 October 2018, 10:51 PM
#8
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Haven't had the time to investigate any further, but I will aim to get the whole car up in the air soon so I can rotate the wheels and have a closer listen. I did try recording the sound by placing mics under the wheel arch, but the wind noise was too much.
19 October 2018, 04:34 PM
#10
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The diff is one of my suspects. Is there an easy way to confirm it is the problem before I start consider splashing the cash and taking it all apart?
20 October 2018, 07:47 PM
#11
Confirm? Easy? None I know of.
However:
- mine started to failed at about 150k
- in daily use, I’d start my car from cold, engage almost full right hand lock, then pull away slowly at parking speed to head out my gate. Over time, as the issue developed, the front right wheel would seem to skip and clunk.
- the problem wasn’t evident at speed nor at normal cornering speed nor at any other point other than at parking speed on lock when cold.
I was told probably wheel bearing or some of the other stuff that you’ve already checked.
So that just left the diff.
In the end I found a thread on here on how to change your centre diff without having to drop your gearbox, managed to persuade a breaker to split one out of a faulty ‘box he was trying to shift, took diff and instructions to local garage who did the swap and, hey presto, problem gone.
However:
- mine started to failed at about 150k
- in daily use, I’d start my car from cold, engage almost full right hand lock, then pull away slowly at parking speed to head out my gate. Over time, as the issue developed, the front right wheel would seem to skip and clunk.
- the problem wasn’t evident at speed nor at normal cornering speed nor at any other point other than at parking speed on lock when cold.
I was told probably wheel bearing or some of the other stuff that you’ve already checked.
So that just left the diff.
In the end I found a thread on here on how to change your centre diff without having to drop your gearbox, managed to persuade a breaker to split one out of a faulty ‘box he was trying to shift, took diff and instructions to local garage who did the swap and, hey presto, problem gone.
24 March 2019, 11:12 PM
#12
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Thread Starter
Decided to get round to changing the top mount on the front shocks to see if that removed the noise. And lo-and-behold, it seems to have done the trick! The bearing on the front right was quite bad once I'd removed it, and left wasn't too bad, but changed it anyway. The only tricky thing about the job was compressing the spring enough to get the top mounts back in place, as there's not many turns on those spring to get a good compression on. Apart from that taking a lot longer than hoped, the rest was pretty easy.
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