Clicking sound when I turn right

And there's a little something I should go ahead and disclose right now... this problem started shortly after I changed my brake pads :ohcrap: I don't know, maybe I thought if I ignored it, it would go away.

This sound comes from the front left wheel when I'm making a right turn. Not a soft turn like when doing a donut, but rather a full hard turn like after you've come to a complete stop at a stop sign, and turn the steering wheel completely before a 90 degree right turn.

I recently took advantage of a free Meineke brake inspection, during which the guy also checked my CV joints. He said all of the above were fine.

Any ideas what could be causing this sound? I haven't really wanted to just take off the wheel and check randomly because I have no idea what to look for. Also I had to go to a tire center to get the lug nuts properly retorqued, so I didn't want to undo this without a specific goal. Anyway. Please help.

  JaneiR36

Hi, you can jack up the car ,get front wheels off the ground (both) and start it up and place it in gear so the front wheels spin and get someone to turn right and left to see if you can spot what is clicking ,most of the time its CV's should use safety stands if you have them , good luck Slim

  Slimone

This seems easy enough. Thanks. I'll do it and let you know what I find :thumbs:

  JaneiR36

Most likely you'll find nothing by following the above instructions. Without the weight of the vehicle placing a load on the CV's they aren't doing enough work to make noise... Unless they are so hopelessly worn that you can hear them from a mile away, but then the entire exercise is pointless.

Just as a side note JaneiR36, it's good to know you're turning right. There might be hope for you yet! :thumbs:

  vwhobo

what's your suggestion?

  JaneiR36

My suggestion, as I have suggested perhaps a thousand times on this forum, is to have a competent technician look at your car if you're unable to determine what your problem is. I know this may come to a surprise to some , but... not everything can be explained and taught on this electronic medium known as the internet. Some things still require not only understanding facts and theory, something that may be gained here, but also a good old fashioned dose of hands on experience, on the job training and a feel for the machine. How do you share those online?

I can identify a worn CV joint at 20 paces, blindfolded. Perhaps the guy at Meineke can't. Perhaps he looked at the boots and saw them intact and assumed the inner workings were okay. Perhaps he's as useless as the day is long and was fired 10 minutes after inspecting your car because he didn't know how to do inspections properly. Perhaps it's not a CV at all, although your description sure sounds as though it is. But then I'm not there to see, hear or feel it so I can't make the final call.

Finally... from reading your many posts asking for help it's apparent that you're trying to perform your own maintenance and repairs which is a noble thing. However it also appears that when something may be above your knowledge or confidence level you always look for the cheapest route out. I mean come on, you replaced your own brake pads then "took advantage of a free Meineke brake inspection". You sound to me like what is known in the industry as a "sumthin fer nothin" kind of customer, always going from shop to shop looking for the cheapest way to do it and wanting freebies. There's that word again, cheap. People like that can also be identified from 20 paces and seldom get a facilities full attention. My suggestion to you is to find a good local independent shop and use them... every single time your car needs something. A good shop will bend over backwards to take care of a loyal customer and will even help you when you're attempting to do your own thing. That is worth far more than any coupon, freebie or advice you can get on the internet. Think about it.

  vwhobo

Hi, Yes Hobo is right sometimes it does take the weight of the car to make a CV click, depends on just how bad it is , but take a look anyway ,it might be something else. Good luck Slim

  Slimone

Oops, I almost forgot. Vote Republican. :thumbs:

  vwhobo

But what's wrong with having mechanic take a look at the brakes just to make sure I did it right? If something was busted and I was in over my head, I would have gladly paid the money to have it fixed properly. But he said I had "great brake pads and shoes. No loose pads..." etc. When he did the inspection (which took him all of five minutes), he had the car up in the air and then had me come look at it with him (illuminating the underside of the vehicle with that flexible light tool thingie). He did quote some price in the hundreds to diagnose and fix the problem after which I thanked him and went home.

You're quite right about my being cheap with this car. Like I said in my intro, this car was bought totaled from an auction lot, fixed by my Mom, given to my sister, and then passed down to me. So while I'd like to be responsible and fix every problem properly, I don't want to pump money into this car that a) I don't have, and b) that's more than what the car is worth. Given the history of the car, also, I also feel it's a great opportunity for me to learn my own maintenance. I'm sure as I'm sitting here that if this car were bought brand new, I wouldn't be so eager to try my hands at every little thing that went wrong.

All that said, I'll take the wheels off and see what I can hear. THEN I'll see about giving it to someone to spend a little more time investigating the problem.

  JaneiR36

Nothing, but... Just like everything else in life you get what you pay for. In this case, due to your admittedly own cheapness, you got exactly what you paid for. Nothing. Here's another newsflash. "Free inspections" are not provided to help you out, they are to get you into the shop so you'll spend money.

I'll type more later, right now I'm taking by lovely wife out for our weekly date. See ya.

  vwhobo

I just didn't see myself giving him money for a minor problem when he hadn't yet told me what was wrong. He did tell me what was wrong with something else, though. That got ignored altogether... meh.

So I took the wheel off. Like you said, the clicking problem wouldn't manifest itself without weight on the wheel. However, I did discover a loose shim on one of the brake pads. I'm guessing that's the offending part so hopefully some adhesive from the auto store will fix that right up.

  JaneiR36

Unbeknownst to me, the brake adhesive is never sold separately. They gave me multiple suggestions at the auto parts store:

a) take off the shim altogether and spray "brake quiet" on the pads instead

b) Get new brake pads

c) Same as b), only try cashing in on the limited warranty

They say heat has damaged the thing and pulled it apart, and one of them said he really hates putting those shims on at all. Still, it looks to me like something you could just gum back together and be done with.

Any ideas anyone? Or any safety reasons why I shouldn't attempt this at all?

  JaneiR36

1. Don't worry about the shim, for reasons of safety at least. The shim is nothing more than a vibration damper. Keep in mind that audible vibration is noise, that's why they're called anti-squeal shims. That is why higher dollar pads come pre-shimmed and cheap pads come without them completely.

2. Where did you buy the pads and what brand are they? Let me know and I'll be happy to explain to you how to shove them up the store's poopy and get new ones for free, depending on the retailer and manufacturer.

3. Spray on brake quite is a bandaid on a broken arm, only a temporary fix at best. I can teach you a cheaper and better way to do the same thing. You an even do it in designer colors.

The final thing (that I remember) that I wanted to point out to you in my last post was... We were talking about the value of a free inspection. Then you came up with a perfect example to prove the point that I was attempting to make. Someone of unknown qualifications "inspected" your brakes and missed the loose shim. By your own admission you're not even close to an expert, and you found it. Maybe you're more quailified to repair cars than the guy who did the "inspection", or at least more thorough.

  vwhobo

When the tech checked your CV joints, he was looking for cracks and leaks in the boots that cover them. Usually, the boots leak out the lubricant and then, eventually, the joints go.

My experience is that CV joints can be noisy for a long time before they get annoying enough to replace. You might be able to get more life out of your joints by repacking them, but the cost is about the the same as replacement, and you have no guarantee of service life. I once repacked a dry joint on a VW and switched it left to right. I then put over 100K on it with no problems (everything else on the car broke, however. My last Golf, period.) But, YMMV.

When you do replace your CV joints, consider replacing the entire axle. It comes all assembled and is easy to swap out, thus cheaper. No need to replace both axles at the same time, unless both are giving trouble.

BTW, there is a chance the noise might be a front wheel bearing. Be careful, they go bad quickly and can leave you stranded. These are usually easy to diagnose when the car is on a lift.

Good luck

  gravistar