Awful sound from the front/driver's wheel

[audiguy]

I should note that a few weeks ago, I started noticing kind of a clunking sound when turning right at slow speeds, VERY subtle, but it caught my attention once or twice. Just sounded like something was a little loose perhaps.

Last night while driving down the highway, I noticed when I was turning hard right (leaning on the driver's side), there was a rotational LOUD clunk coming from the driver's side front wheel area (CLEARLY from that area). Went away as long as I was going straight or turning left.

This morning, I turned hard HARD right (At low speed) into a parking lot, and the noise came back even worse, and was even present while driving straight for a bit. Then back to just being present while turning hard right at speed.

No whining or anything that makes me usually think wheel bearing, but maybe it's a strange presentation of a bad bearing? I know the previous owner had the pass side one replaced, but no mention of the driver's side. CV joint possibly?

 

[Donut Slayer]

If its 4wd then I'd say yes to the CV joint.

 

[audiguy]

If its 4wd then I'd say yes to the CV joint.

Yeah - it's 4WD, although I almost always run it in 2H. Why does that make a difference for the CV joint?

I assume replacing the CV is probably a huge pain in the ass.

 

[audiguy]

Hm, just did some searching, sounds like replacing the axle half shaft is actually a pretty straightforward job. I'll get down there today and jack it up to have a look. If I can find evidence that the CV is damaged, I'll just go ahead and replace that tomorrow.

I'm still thinking it could be the wheel bearing too, but what doesn't add up there is that when driving straight the noise is essentially gone, and there's no "bearing whine"...

 

[Donut Slayer]

Hm, just did some searching, sounds like replacing the axle half shaft is actually a pretty straightforward job. I'll get down there today and jack it up to have a look. If I can find evidence that the CV is damaged, I'll just go ahead and replace that tomorrow.

I'm still thinking it could be the wheel bearing too, but what doesn't add up there is that when driving straight the noise is essentially gone, and there's no "bearing whine"...

It could be either. Just jack it up and look at the half shaft. If there is any play in the wheel when you have it up, its probably the hub. But the clunking sound, sounds like a CV joint.

 

[audiguy]

It could be either. Just jack it up and look at the half shaft. If there is any play in the wheel when you have it up, its probably the hub. But the clunking sound, sounds like a CV joint.

Thanks again, I'll be taking a look in the morning.

 

[audiguy]

Well, took a look today and decided it was probably the ball joint, as the CV looks and feels fine, and the wheel was wobbly when I pushed on it. So I started tackling removing the hub assembly.

Except I could get it to budge AT ALL. It's totally rusted onto the steering knuckle. I have been working on it all day, and made ZERO progress, except to chisel into it so much that I think I've wrecked the steering knuckle.

WTF do I do now? I'm thinking I may just pull out the knuckle, and replace that too, although that doesn't exactly seem easy.