Poping noise when making sharp turns

[Stubby~CC]

I first noticed the noise when I was making a u-turn w/ the window town. Then I messed around with it in a parking lot and it does it in either direction. But it seems to be a little worse to the right.

When I turn the wheel tight (approx 3/4 max or more) there's a really loud poping noise like pop.pop.pop.pop... It doesn't sound good. There's no vibration in the wheel or anything. I looked under the front of the truck and every thing looks to be in one piece. What should I be looking for?

I also have a light clicking noise coming from the passenger side that's louder in 4wd. I was thinking that was probably the hub wearing out after 60k of hard love. Could the two be the same problem? or related? How do I 'know' if a hub is bad?

I'm gonna mess with it some more this afternoon. Thanks in advance for your help.

[lmr81]

Check the tierods, ball joints, centerlink etc for wear. Do you have aftermarket steering? The stock steering is pretty weak. Do you have manual or automatic hubs? if you have autos and they go bad most of the time they just wont engage. I have had a manual hub lock up on me going 60 and it made a loud whining noise cause its spun the half shaft and what not, freaked me out a little.

[Packman5280]

on the older W/D21 trucks the front crossmember would get loose, making the noise you describe. not sure if that problem affects the frontiers or not.

if a hub is going bad, you will hear clicking from the opposite side of the bad hub.

[Nissanclay]

My girlfriends car clicks when she turns and its because her CV's are going bad. They make no noise when straight but when she turns it make the noise. I'm assuming its clicking while the vehicle is in motion?

[Stubby~CC]

Yes, just when in motion. And it speeds up when I speed up, or slows when i slow. The steering is totally stock, and last time i checked it had no extra play in it.

Say some asshole hit my front passenger side in a parking lot and drove off (which they did), and if they had hit my tire along with my weak ass plastic bumper (which they might have), what would that have broken? It just occured to me that the damn bumper I've been messing with for two weeks could be related.

The hub seems to engage just fine. How do I check if a CV is bad?

[Alex Topousis]

did you take apart your hubs just to see if they werent blown? that could make a pop noise possibly

[Nissanclay]

. How do I check if a CV is bad?


Good question. I've only known the sound/signs but never a quick way of checking without taking them completly apart. Is there a quick way to check or is the only option taking everyting apart?

[Packman5280]

if you aren't in 4wd, the CV won't be moving so you wouldn't hear it unless the hubs were locked in somehow (manual hubs or autos that haven't unlocked). a bad hub often sounds like a playing card stuck in bike spokes.

[Allen Cox]

Do this...

Physically take off both of your hubs in a parking lot and try to make the noise. It won't hurt anything to do this, for a couple of minutes only. You don't want to get a ton of dirt in the grease.

If the noise is gone, get new hubs, if not, then hubs are not the problem. Switching to manual hubs does fix a lot of spontaneous engagement issues.

[DamnHippie]

Martin, it's gonna be a major truck-work weekend at my house (Candy is out of town), bring it on over and we'll poke at it until we figure it out. I was gonna call you tonight anyway and see if you wanted to come over and help me build new sliders, I think I'm gonna try to get up to K&K steel this afternoon and get some tube for them.

[Stubby~CC]

I'll take you up on that Ian. I hope it's a cheap fix! :errr: :D

[DamnHippie]

I was tinkering with the truck so long last night that it was 11:00 before I thought about calling you, so I didn't. I'll be around and working on the truck all day today, give me a call whenever you achieve verticality.

Jamie, I forgot to call you, too, gimme a call if you wanna come over and help build sliders and figure out Martin's problem and all.