Issue: Popping/knocking sounds coming from somewhere in the front end of the car

Symptom: A series of loud popping sounds can be heard most frequently while backing up the car and turning the wheel either direction (backing out of a parking spot). The popping sound also occurs during mild braking at slowish speeds while going straight. Once in a while I also hear it during slow speeds over bumpy roads.



I thought originally it was a loose wheel as thats the only thing that made sense. I have taken off both front wheels (SSR) inspected the plastic SSR hubcentric rings, and remounted & torqued to 85 lbft - I'm afraid to go higher because of my aluminum lug nuts. I have also checked to make sure the upper and lower a-arm bolts, caliper mounting bolts, sway bar end links, and upper and lower shock (Bilstein PSS9) mounting bolts were all torqued to spec. I also checked the bolts on my MS strut tower brace and even tried backing off on the brake cylinder master brace support bolt. About the only thing I think I have failed to check was the sway bar center mounting bracket bolting - but it make no sense that its a sway bar issue.


So I'm out of ideas on what else to check


One thing I did notice on the drivers side wheel if I tighten up the wheel and leave the car off the jack, a loud pop can be heard as it gets loaded - impossible to tell what is is though

 

It's possible the springs binding...

I would double check everything. You had to miss something. Could possibly be the bearing as well. Doubt full but possible.


Travis

 

I had something similar, was a loose caster adjustment bolt on the lower control arm. "Loose" meaning hand-tight but not to spec. It's the vertical bolt closest to the door.

 

Risking the definition of insanity, I removed the front wheels again and went over every bolt again... Found nothing loose but did get maybe a quarter of a turn on a sway bar chassis mount bolt. This time I also cleaned up the hubs, hubcentric rings, and torqued the wheels down in 3 steps before putting the car down to ensure they were on the hub flush.

Took it for a quick spin and so far so good! Will have to get some more miles on before calling it a success...

 

Can you follow up and let us know if this worked for you, and if you discovered anything else? I've got some popping noises coming out the front of mine that are driving me absolutely crazy. I can make them pop at will by driving in a tight oval at moderate speed, so it really seems like a weight transfer thing. I've been down there tightening every bolt I can find, replaced the sway bar end links, one of the outer tie rod ends, a hub (with bearing). It only seems to be getting worse. Sure the car is an old '04 with 250k miles, but I'm trying to keep it nice.

 

The sounds came back a few drives later but not nearly as bad. I think my next steps are replacing the lug nuts with ones I can torque harder and/or replace the brake rotors so the wheels sit more flush on the rotors.

 

Have you tried the wheels without the hubcentric rings?
To be honest, I don't think it's your wheels, that doesn't really create clunks. I really think it's a join in the suspension ... ball joint, shock mount, endlink... Go over them with a torque wrench and check that they are to spec. That worked for me when I had similar symptoms.