Thread: mystery popping noise front of vehicle

Well, its a mystery to me.

It sounds kind of like a bad cv joint but they've both been replaced. The noise has happened with the old and new axles. Also, both hubs have been replaced. Visual inspection of the control arms--those look fine. There is no play or movement in them.

The noise seems to happen randomly and I can't duplicate it on cue. It is frequent, though. Shaking the car, pushing on it up and down, braking back and forth--forward, reverse.......I noticed that it kind of does it sometimes when I start the car. So I figured maybe its the lower motor mount. So I replaced it today--and it needed it badly. But that wasn't the noise. I thought for sure it would have been it.

I've also replaced the upper motor mounts and visually inspected the trans mount today and it is fine.

Sitting in the car, it sounds like its coming from the front right but I cannot be sure. The only thing I can think of at this point would be steering rack related or sway bar linkage. It does do it on occasion when turning the wheels. But it also does it while going straight. Its seems to happen when the weight of the car shifts or something, not necessarily just hitting a bump. It does it sometimes and sometimes not.

I took it to a shop a few months ago to see if they could find it. They told me it was my brake calipers banging on the knuckle and wanted to charge me 500 bucks to replace them. Well, I took it home and took the right caliper apart and regreased it. There's a little movement in it, but I could never get it to bang or knock against the steering knuckle. The other caliper was the same story. I also could not force the car to make the sound the same way they said they did.

Oh, the strut mounts have been replaced as well.

Im out of ideas. Except that I noticed while looking under it just a few minutes ago that the cat is not hanging on the hangers. Maybe.....
That probably came off when I jacked the engine up to change the lower engine mount, though.

Any other ideas anyone?

I had a similar issue a couple years back. It would clunk and "pop" as you call it.. randomly, but got more frequent overtime. When I hit the gas from a stop, braking to a stop, turning at low speeds, etc. I would hear the noise. It ended up being my passenger side lower control arm bolts not being fully torqued.


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i had the mystery clunk too. i changed every last front end part, not due to guessing so much as everything was shot.

tie rods end, one inner tie rod, the rack went bad, new sway bar new strut mounts, the last parts to get changed were the lca's that took care of the clunk. i could see nothing wrong with my old ones at all. i suspect the ball joints were bad.

i put dorman lower control arms on 40 a side, been good for 2 years now.

oh yeah, I put outer tie rods on too.
lca, that's the last thing. they look fine, though.
the caliper thing sounded kind of silly to me. anyone ever heard of such an issue?

thanks guys. i'll probably try to ride it til spring and hope it doesn't break. my wife's van needs rear brakes......I have Christmas to pay for still, taxes to pay.....the fee of 50 dollars to process the car's tax for the year is more than the actual tax for the car. Go figure.

Im so sick of working on cars

its starting to clunk a bit with rapid steering wheel movement. I would never be lucky enough to just have some loose bolts.

Originally Posted by Shiftingshaddow

its starting to clunk a bit with rapid steering wheel movement. I would never be lucky enough to just have some loose bolts.

ball joints would be my guess then. under a 100 bucks and your time. they can wait tho. mine were clunking for some time till i got to them.

not bad, just the once in a while deal like yours.

have also heard the diagonal braces make a clunk when turning or braking. make sure they are tight.

I've had a clunk, was loose control arm bolt and another time the ball joints needed greasing was all!

couple questions @robxstone What is the intermediate shaft?

@z34 what are the diagonal braces?

its so hard to tell exactly where its coming from. sometimes i'm sure its front passenger side but sometimes it seems to sound a little bit in the center of the front end.

I have been thinking its unrelated but there are a couple other noises. One is that Ive just thought one of the rear hubs is bad because there is a rotational sound.....it gets louder the faster the car goes and it has a rhythm to it. I jacked the car up and there is absolutely no play in any of the wheels in any direction--and I violently shook the car. Since I've replaced both cv's and both front hubs it can't be those. The noise has remained throughout. The ride is a bit wobbly, if that is the right way to say it. kinda feels like unbalanced tires. But all four tires are brand new on straight rims and they are balanced. Had the same thing on two other sets of wheels. The vibration is in the floor, not the steering wheel.

Another thing is at times in lower gear the car kind of wobbles or shudders a bit, like it would if weight was shifted or something. That's the best way I can think to describe it. this you can feel in the steering wheel.

One other idea ive had is that maybe something is up with the subframe. Arent there bushings where it connects to the cars frame? That's the popping noise, not the rotational noise. maybe could explain some of the apparent weight shift phenomenon. I've replaced the dogbones, though not with brand new ones but visually apparently better ones (off another car). The rubber is good and not too flexible. I've also replaced the lower motor mount and the trans mount looks good. I would suspect it was replaced when the previous owner had the transmission overhauled.

The popping noise is just a random noise but does not seem to happen at higher speeds.