Thread: popping sound when turning...?

i recently noticed whenever i turn the steering wheel to the right at a tight turn, such as into a parking lot or onto an intersection, i'll hear and feel a popping sound around the middle of the car. it all started after i got my car back that the shop i went to get my tranny replaced. it also apprea to be happening when i turn tight/narrow left turns now.
i jacked the car up and checked for the usual.
i checked the cv boot and both sides are fine and theres no signs of green grease 'goo'. i also checked the sway bar and it doesnt seem to be cracked. the front struts/springs are from a comp g that has approximately 80k miles on them now.
the outer tie-rod end bushings are shot/smashed but they were like that for a while and it never was an issue b4 i had the tranny problem(i was planning on replacing the outer tie-rods very soon).
i checked both lower motor mount as wel as trans mount and they look fine. the LCA bushing has some wear and tear but no change from the last time i noticed.
lastly the steering wheel is slightly off, meaning if im aiming to go straight on the road the steering wheel is turned/aimed at approxaimtely 10 o'clock due to the trans swap and the engine cradles had to be unbolted in the process.
so what could it be thats causing the popping sound at each narrow/tight turn?

The only thing I am aware of that makes that kind of noise is a wheel bearing.

hmm...will, the driver side was replaced not to long ago. i shaked both sides 12 and 6 o'clock and theres minimal play. again i also shaked 3 and 9 o'clock and both sides had slight play like aa couple millimeters.

You wont get any looseness with it, at least mine didnt. Mine would only do it when I was driving backwards at sharp turn angles, like backing into a parking space. I had just replaced the wheel bearing and apparently got a bad one. Took it back to be replaced and it ran fine from there.

Could be a couple things. But like scotty said, the pop while turning is usually a wheel bearing. But, did you replace the strut bearings when you installed them? These can make a similar noise if they are going bad.

As for the alignment, I would possibly take it to a shop that does alignments, tell them about your noise, have them check everything over, and if it all looks good, align the car. You need to have it done anyway. So might as well have them check everything while they are at it. Oh, might do the tie rods first.

Yea I plan on getting the outer tie-rod ends replaced since the bushings are smashed like pancakes. Do I need any specialty tools to unbolt the outer tie-rod ends at all or just the normal hand tools? Im gonna buy the moog types off rockauto today. Also the strut bearings IIRC, are also off the comp g struts/springs. Basically I just swapped the grand prix strut/spring assembly and installed the comp g.

will im gonna stop by the shop tomorrow and the mechanic s gonna put it on the lift and help me find out what it is. today i noticed when i turn to make a right turn, ie-turning onto another street and then straighten the wheel, the instant i straighten the wheels it'll pop as well. another thing i noticed was when i gradually apply the brakes on a somewhat bumpy road i can hear moreso than feel the popping sound, just not as loud as when i turn. my initial thought was a bad lower motor mount.

did i mentioned when i checked under the car the other day i noticed there was black semi-dried black residue on the back end of the lower motor mount? i also checked inside the area where the bolts sit on top of the motor mount and there was a small puddle of what looked like black oil. it didnt smell like motor oil. the mount's not the oem stocker as i reaplced it back when the car was ~100K miles and now its at 142K. "COULD" the lower motor mount had cracked and leaked hydraulic fluid? what ways can i check if it is the lower motor mount busted?

i fixed the popping/crunching noise!!!!!!
i first thought since the motor sat a lower at an angle due to the cradle bolts being unbolted that it cause the collector pipe off the pacesetter to hit the cat heat shield since it 'looked' like it would bounce against it when driving around and turning. wil as i was trying to hammer the heat shield away from the collector piping my left elbow accidentally hit the nearby rear passenger side cradle mount and guess what, it was loose!!!!!!!!! i felt all the other 3 and sure damnit it enough they were all loose!!! so wheneve ri was turning or stopping the entire motor/trans would shift the weight around. i tighten them all as tight as i could. i called dubob and he said to torque them down to at least 100ft/lb but my friend's garage i was at only had in/lb and we couldnt figure out how much in/lb would equal 1ft/lb lol. so i tighten it up as much as i could and took the car out for a lil test drive. no more popping/crunching when turning nor when coming to a stop. i called the mechanic and told him and he's gonna have a lil chat with his shop assistant as he was the one doing the work on my tranny swap.

*cliff notes-found cradle bolts not tighten down causing popping noises when turning and stopping. tighten them all down and did a test drive and no more popping noises.

Originally Posted by fst

we couldnt figure out how much in/lb would equal 1ft/lb lol.

How many inches in a foot?

The cradle bolts are 118ft/lb for the front, and 122ft/lb for the back. Multiply those numbers by 12 to see how many in/lb.

thanks, will apparently my friend's torque wrench only goes up to 960in/lb which would be 80ft/lb and it wouldnt turn anymore more than that. if i did i'd fear i'd strip the bolt(s)-i had a past history of over-torqueing and stripping bolts >.<

Yeah, that would do it. I just wonder what else they missed if they never tightened those bolts. Hope everything else is okay.

As for torquing, I don't think you will strip the cradle bolts. You would need a long bar to do that. As it is, I put a long bar on the end of a 28" breaker bar to tighten mine and I don't strip them. As for figuring out how much 100 ft/lbs is. Your lugnuts are tightened to 100 ft/lbs. So next time, try to loosen one of those and see how much it takes to loosen it. Then tighten the cradle bolts to at least that...plus some more. I don't usually worry about torque specs on stuff like that. Just tight.

good to know. im going to check the cradle bolts later today and see if it loosened or not, but i doubt it will. i was getting very irritated on the damn popping/crunching sound for the past 2 weeks. I did end up replacing my worn outer tie-rod and bushings with moog types ^_^ then tomorrow im going to get my rims swapped out(same style but painted white lol) then get the front tires realigned. Should I also get the rears aligned again or just the fronts as the rears were done a few months back?

Originally Posted by fst

good to know. im going to check the cradle bolts later today and see if it loosened or not, but i doubt it will. i was getting very irritated on the damn popping/crunching sound for the past 2 weeks. I did end up replacing my worn outer tie-rod and bushings with moog types ^_^ then tomorrow im going to get my rims swapped out(same style but painted white lol) then get the front tires realigned. Should I also get the rears aligned again or just the fronts as the rears were done a few months back?

Yeah, an alignment is a good idea after having those loose and everything replaced. As for the rear, I wouldn't worry about it if you just had it done recently. The front is the most critical. So unless you replace something in the rear, I wouldn't bother having it even checked.