banging noise from front drivers side wheel

[LoMbArD]

I have a 2001 ga 3.4
When I get the car up to speed (anywhere over 35 - 40 MPH) and I let off the gas, I hear a banging noise coming from the front drivers side wheel area. I can feel it in the steering wheel, and it is consistant with 1 bang for every time the wheel spins. It only happens when I am going straight, if I am going around a curve to the left or right it stops until I am straight again. It goes away when I accelerate. Breaking has no impact on the banging. I have replaced the CV axle on that side and the strut on that side as well as the outer tie rod end. (they all needed replaced anyway, all OE and 230k miles old) But my banging is still there. I have also replaced the bushings on the slide pins for the calipers with no change. Where do I go next? Thanks for the input guys.

On a slightly related note, I can't tighten the top bolt on the strut quite all the way tight, there is a little bit of play in it still, so I have added that noise to the equation. Is there a trick to tightening it? The strut shaft just spins. My air wrench is a cheep wanna be with very low torque, if I used a more powerful one would that do the trick?

[3100]

-remove the tire and inspect for bulges, or things stuck in between the tyre threads. Swap FL with RL and test to eliminate tyre problem. Also concentrate on the things that rotate only.

[xeroinfinity]

Originally Posted by LoMbArD

I have a 2001 ga 3.4
When I get the car up to speed (anywhere over 35 - 40 MPH) and I let off the gas, I hear a banging noise coming from the front drivers side wheel area. I can feel it in the steering wheel, and it is consistant with 1 bang for every time the wheel spins. It only happens when I am going straight, if I am going around a curve to the left or right it stops until I am straight again. It goes away when I accelerate. Breaking has no impact on the banging. I have replaced the CV axle on that side and the strut on that side as well as the outer tie rod end. (they all needed replaced anyway, all OE and 230k miles old) But my banging is still there. I have also replaced the bushings on the slide pins for the calipers with no change. Where do I go next? Thanks for the input guys.

On a slightly related note, I can't tighten the top bolt on the strut quite all the way tight, there is a little bit of play in it still, so I have added that noise to the equation. Is there a trick to tightening it? The strut shaft just spins. My air wrench is a cheep wanna be with very low torque, if I used a more powerful one would that do the trick?

i would agree with 3100 about checking the tire, coulc be the wheel bearing...

But a lose strut can make a lot of racket and damage. A good way to damage your bearing plate the strut rides in.

You'll need to use an old fashion wrench and vise grips to hold the shaft on top to keep it from spinning. Watch your knuckles. lol

Another thing, these should be replaced in PAIRS. Reason being the new one pushes more weight to the weaker side making it wear faster, thus causing the new one to crap out early.

[LoMbArD]

Thanks guys, I think I have it narrowed down to the wheel bearing. After I get the caliper and the rotor off I can grab the wheel studs and shake them and it makes a nice clanking noise, so I'll replace it this weekend and see where I get.

Back to the strut, xero, I can't get an old fashioned wrench to fit down far enough to grab the nut? it's a 7/8 sized nut and my end wrench won't get down far enough, and I have a box wrench that angles, but it doesn't go down far enough either? I'm about out of ideas and if I can't figure out something this weekend I guess I'll have to take the strut assembly to a place that does that for a living and see what they can do with it.

[xeroinfinity]

Sorry for the delayed reply !!

Hope you got that bearing fixed, Not good if you can shake it!

On the strut nut, a crows foot may fit down in the hole.
They do sell open ended sockets but usually require a special ratchet. Here are some examples;






Also a very deep socket would work. Or if you can get a socket on the nut and vise grips on the socket and another vise grip on the strut shaft you can tighten the nut but you wouldnt be able to torq it properly.

Hope that helps

[LoMbArD]

Thanks for the reply, I actually got it figured out last night, I took the nut off (the one that came with the strut) and looked at it and then realized that it was about 3/4 of an inch shorter than the nut I took off of the old strut. Using the old nut I had no issues whatsoever. The nut that came with the strut was running out of threads before it bottomed out.