Last night while turning into my garage, I heard a rattling or clunking noise coming from the left front. Sounded to me like something was loose on the front end.

I jacked it up and pulled the wheel off, but could not see anything obvious. All the boots were in good shape, no cracks or grease seepage. I pulled the other side and nothing there either. After putting the wheels back on and letting it down, I got in the car, turned it on and turned the wheel both ways while stationary. When turning the wheel to the left, I heard a creaking noise that wasn't too loud, but definitely did not sound right. I imagine that the road noise is loud enough to cover any noise it makes while driving. I didn't notice anything from the right side.

Am I on the right track that this is something in the steering system? Any ideas how to track this down and troubleshoot it?

Thanks.

 

Have you checked the driveshaft cv joints ? when driving and turning they get clunky if worn.

 

I had thought that may be the case, but I did take it out in the cul-de-sac and did tight circles. I did not hear any clacking from the cv's. I also looked at the boots and the were in good shape.

I've experienced a failing cv before and this has a different sound. Making the sound while parked and turning the wheel seemed to indicate to me something in the steering system, but I can see that it could be something else.

 

Another bit of information to add, I pulled into a parking garage and heard what sounded like grinding gears when I turned the wheel while stationary. This was a different type of sound than what I originally heard. It sounded somewhat like a rusty bike chain being cranked. I tried to get a video of it later, but it would not do it. I will see if I can get one later to post up.

 

David, this is old, but did you ever fix this? My 05 has had the creaking for years and thousands of miles, not really getting worse so I ignore it, but yet slightly annoying. Thx!

 

GearheadS,

No, I never did get it sorted. I resigned myself to monitoring it to see if it got any worse, but it never did. Not sure why this would be such a hard thing to pin down, but sadly that is the case.

Certainly is annoying as you know something is just not right, but I'm not terribly inclined to start throwing money at it until I know what exactly is the issue.

Hope you have better luck figuring it out.