Hello all,
I previously had a clunking sound in my car that has been bothering me for about three months -_-... so I have been saving/looking for parts to help rid me of this problem. Well after swapping out a bunch of suspension parts the clunking noise is gone but now I have a thumping sound haha

Before adding all these new suspension parts, I am a base 2.2 balt, lowered on BC coilovers, I want to say I have about a 2 inch gap between the tires and the fenders. I also have 17 inch rims with a tire profile setting 215/45/17. So again before installing all these LSJ parts, I had a clunking sound with the stock l61 setup.. no thumping sound. After installing the LSJ parts I have no clunking sound but now have a thumping sound.

A friend and I just got done installing these parts...After installing these parts I started to get a thumping sound..
-I got a Cobalt SS (2006 LSJ) steering rack from the classifieds here, we installed new inner and outer tie rods on the steering rack.
-Added Cobalt SS Powergrid endlinks
-Installed Cobalt SS (2006 LSJ) steering knuckles
-Installed LSJ control arms with spherical control arm bushings
-Popped off the riveted ball joints on the control arm and added Moog ball joints


Ok so here's what happens-
There's no noise going over bumps or while driving in a straight line.
If I go in reverse, turn the wheel all the way to the left or right, and give the car some gas there is no noise at all.
If I make a slight turn either left or right while driving there is no noise at all.
If I turn the wheel all the way while stationary there is no noise at all.

There IS noise when I turn the wheel all the way to the left or right and accelerate.


What we tried...
When I put the car on the lift and turned the wheel all the way to the right or left my friend said that the endlinks weren't hitting the control arms.
Also while on the lift, I turned the wheel all the way to one side and I put the car into gear and gave it some gas, there was no thumping sound.
I was thinking maybe even axle bind, but my car wasn't really lowered after all these parts.. so we raised the car quite a bit.. still no luck..

The sound only seems to come from when I'm on the ground and have the steering wheel turned all the way. Lower your volume before playing these videos if you have headphones on.


Cobalt- thud sound when turning (2) - YouTube

Cobalt- thud sound when turning - YouTube



Any suggestions would be greatly helpful, my friend said we could use his lift Friday, so I am just trying to get some ideas that I can use when I try to diagnose this problem. I think I also have some pictures of the stuff we installed if you would like a visual reference.. maybe you can spot something I did wrong?

Some ideas might be that the axle nut isn't torqued all the way?
Rubbing somewhere?

 

I would suggest cv joint to tell the truth. let me know if this helps...cheers

 

That's what one of my friends said, but do you think a cv joint would go bad all of a sudden? I didn't have this noise before swapping all the stuff and also wouldn't I hear that same noise if I went in reverse?

Thanks in advance for the reply.


If you guys can answer this question I would also be grateful, how much space do you guys have between your sway bar and control arms?

 

Did you ever get this fixed?

 

Hey man,
Unfortunately I did not get this fixed..
It's 3am in the morning lol, just getting back home from a friend's place after working on my car.

We installed new stage 1 axles, I put back my old knuckles, installed f23 rotated mounts, steering rack spacers, rear SS/TC trans mount, and a SS/TC front sway bar.. still have this noise...
Any suggestions?

So it's definitely not the cv joints lol, do you think it can be coming from the steering rack?

 

its deffently something in the cv's, it almost sounds like their being pulled out of the cups when you turn, but that shouldn't be happening cause their not at a sever angle, I"ve honestly only heard that happening on lifted trucks. the only other thing I can think of is when you did the swap, your caster or toe in is off a little, and somehow the tire is hitting something in your fender well, or one of the splashshields is catching the axle, just look, look and look some more, cuase that noise is rotational and somewhere between your trans and the tires

 

I just replaced both axles on my car and I am pretty sure it's not rubbing. Man I've checked everywhere and I am running out of ideas.

 

Pic of car on the ground. Near the front fender.

 

 

thats not a stock spring. looks like a coil over or a sleeve. its an f23 car. I would guess that at full lock with those tires and coil overs you get a lot of scrub and that could lead to a thump transmitted through the top mount of the coil over, which if I am right would be a spherical joint and would not isolate the skip/scrub motion of the wheel/tire assembly at full lock.

and then the brake calipers look non stock as well....

 

Amazing how much we can gather from a few pics

I agree with John, and also, if those are sleeved, the popping could very well be from the spring unseating and reseating. Tell us what kind of coilover that is.

 

They are BC coilovers, I said that in the first post lol. I've had the coilovers and tires on for about eight months and never had this this thumping noise problem. The noise only came after we installed the new parts as I listed in the previous posts.

 

i think its a gremlin

those pesky bastards

 

I'm guessing it's still something CV related, or BC coilovers are popping at the top, where the big spherical is. Have someone recreate the problem while you stand next to the car. Try not to get run over in the process :P

Remove one of the swaybar end links to make sure it's nothing swaybar related.

 

Problem Solved
It was the steering rack, I just had a nagging feeling that was it... I took out my rack spacers and put back my old steering rack. Problem is now gone.

Thanks everyone for their inputs-