Help Diagnosing Front End Sound
 

Okay, before anyone says do a search, I did. And most everything mentioned a clunking noise while turning at low speeds that indicated a bad ISS, or one that needed grease. I'm relatively sure that's not my issue, but I'll explain in more detail, and hope that I might be able to get some help.

My vehicle is a 2002 MC SS, with 98K on it. I regularly maintain it, and noticed this about a month ago. It doesn't seem to have a detrimental effect on handling or overall driveability, but is annoying and more frustrating the longer I drive with it.

First, I would not call my sound a clunking, but more of a "flapping" or "light smacking", coming from the front drivers side, really where the suspension is. I notice it mostly on rough streets, and turning into my driveway, though not as a result of my turning, but because I have a near-curb deep approach to get onto my driveway. The fact that I was hearing it when the suspension was working made me think that maybe the strut mount was bad. I replaced that to no avail. In the last few days, I've also noticed the sound (or at least one "smack" of it) when starting the vehicle. Though, I haven't checked, this makes me wonder about motor/transmission mounts, but I thought I'd poll the experts at the MCF first.

Any help would be appreciated. Please let me know if you have any questions, or things aren't clear.

-Adrian

Check your brake, caliper, rotor, bearing. And the obvious one, check the tire.

Brake: was tight when I replaced the strut mount. I checked when the tire was off.
Caliper: that's what I checked, above
Rotor: well, that's going to be lose when the wheels off, so I'll assume since I torqued my lugs to 100lb/ft, it's good
Bearing:I haven't replaced the driver's side one yet. I don't get any bearing-type noise (grinding, noises changing with vehicle speed, louder turning one way or the other) with it, so though I doubt that's it, it's a possibility. I'll check closer.
Tire: Just a little over a year old, with ~10k miles on it. I hadn't really thought about that, but I'll look that over closer too.

Thanks for the tips, and any additional as well.

-Adrian

OK, one thing jumped out to me in this post. You said the rotor's going to be loose when the wheel's off. It's NOT supposed to be. The caliper bracket holds it in place. If it is loose that's probably your issue.

Okay, at the risk of sounding contrary, and hoping that instead I understand better what you're meaning, here goes.

So, yes the caliper bracket will technically hold the rotor on (as in there's no way you're going to pull that off without removing, or at least rotating up the caliper), but if there's no pressure being applied to the pistons to squeeze the pads in the caliper, there's going to be a bit of play. That play is what I mean will be loose. The rotor will be "loose" and have some play until the wheel is torqued down.

Or at least that's how I'm understanding it, maybe I'm way off??

Thanks again though for the tips!

-Adrian

You're right, but the rotor should not move very much at all even with the wheel off. But the pressure from the lugnuts does tighten it the rest of the way. Make sure your wheel well's in there tight, and don't rule out the wheel bearing possibly being bad.