need some suspension help

[Sean Johnson]

A few weeks agao I had some grinding & popping coming from the passenger side which was progressively getting worse. I thought it was the CV joint, so I replaced it. Then yesterday got an alignment done.

On the way home it felt a lot better, let go of the wheel and the car went straight.

Side note, but I don't think this is the problem, the front tires are worn unevenly cause I went so long with out an alignment after changing out my suspension, so they are bald on the inside and might blow at any time.

Pulling out of the driveway, I hear a loud grinding / popping noise and now again, the car is pulling to the right (passenger side). Not as bad as before the alignment, but def, pulling.

What the hell could this be?

SJ

[GTO Assassin]

What suspension are you running Sean? Control arms etc?

Scotty

[Sean Johnson]

Intrax on stock struts.

[Dark-Hawk]

Worn tie rod ends possibly, I know I was hearing a grinding noise at the end of my tie rod ends life and the car was pulling to the side. I had a lot of vibration in the steering wheel too.

[Sean Johnson]

Hummm, maybe. But how do I test to see. I don't want to keep buying stuff, installing it, just to find out that's not the problem.

Ball joint? Upper or lower?

[Dark-Hawk]

Both of my tie rods were worn so I'm not sure which would cause it. A test I was told to do would be to lock the steering wheel in place and jack up a side of the car and try and turn the wheel (not rotate, but turn it as though it would turn if the car was turning ya know?) side to side and see how much play there is.

[Sean Johnson]

Gotcha, I try that this weekend.

[vr4]

jack up the car and grab the wheel. try to wiggle it up and down and side to side and feel for looseness. if you feel looseness have someone look at the ball joints and tie rod ends (dont forget the inners) to see if any are loose. if none of those are loose its likely a wheel bearing.

[Sean Johnson]

I kind of counted the wheel bearing out cause it wouldn't cause the wheel to pull one way, could it?

[vr4]

if there bad enough they will. its not very likely due to the fact that its intermittant.

[Sean Johnson]

Hummm, I guess I'll be looking into that as well. The sound only happens when making somewhat sharp turns.

[JagdStealth]

Sharp turns would say it's probably not the wheel bearing, but I would check it just in case.

Whomever did your alignment should have checked tie rods and ball joints More than likely one of the two.

[Sean Johnson]

I'll check this weekend. Thnx for the advice

[Monochrome]

Jack up the car, pull off the wheel, and look.

No seriously, a worn tie rod end or ball joint would have cracked boots with dirt & grease coming out of them. Usually a good tell tail sign of something being wrong.

...or hell, post a few pics and I'll point it out.

Being that you said there's an alignment issue, I'm going to put $$ on a worn tierod end.

[Sean Johnson]

I'll dig into it tomorrow. If need be, pics will be taken. Thnx guys