98 LGT Brake Noise?

[BagelPirate]

So, about a week ago my car started to have a slight squeal when applying the brake, nothing too bad, didnt happen all the time.

Then it rained for about 5 days straight, during that time, the squeal never happened.

Yesterday, it stopped raining, and now, my car has a "clunk" when it is in motion.

It sounds like its coming from the front left of the car, but not part of the motor.

The clunk does not happen when there is power behind the tires, or when i'm applying the break. It only happens when the car is in motion and im not touching the brake/gas.

It seems to get worse when I turn slightly to the left.

when the clutch is in or it is out of gear the Motor RPM does not affect the clunk at all. Neither does pushing the clutch pedal in and out.

I'm thinking its the front left brake, but I dont really know.

Is it safe to drive like this? Any help is appreciated.

[warrior]

You should try to look at the CV boot.. if its ripped open and there is no more grease in there.. you might need a new CV joint.. or ball joint (I think)

[BagelPirate]

I thought the CV joint was in the middle of the car, this is definately coming from the front left.

[rougeben83]

There's two sets per CV joint. Look underneath.

[BagelPirate]

How will I be able to determine if it needs a new boot or an entire new CV joint?

I'm a mechanical noob, I'll admit it. But wouldnt the CV joint continue making noise even if the brake was on?

[Wiscon_Mark]

If it's making noise, the joint needs replacing, along with the boot.

[PatH]

I'm taking a drive trains course in college this term, and my understanding is the you will get one of two types of noise from CVs. If you have a bad inner joint, you will typically get a thunk, however this generally only happens on acceleration or decelleration. If you're in motion and not on the brakes or gas that would certainly be decelleration. The noise that you get from a bad outer joint is a clicking around corners, with it being more pronounced when turning in the direction that corresponds with the side the bad joint is on.

It sounds to me that there is a good likely hood that you have a bad inner joint. Since you indicate that you've been getting a good amount of rain, prior to the noise starting, it's entirely possible that the inner boot is torn and the rain water ended up washing away a good deal of the grease. The first thing I'd do is inspect all the CV boots, including the rear if AWD, as these boots wear out with some regualrity and it's pretty easy to check them.

If you find that a boot is torn, you have a couple of options. First you could just replace the boot with a split boot. In my opinion these are pretty pointless though, they're a pain in the ass to install, and they don't last as long as a solid boot. The second option is to pick up a solid boot. These will likely last about the same amount of time as a factory boot, the downside is that you need to remove the half shaft to install it, and to snug down the clamps properly, you need a special tool. I need to note here that neither of these will fix a noisy joint but they will work if there hasn't been any damage to the joint itself.

In my opinion, it's probably best to replace the half shaft if there's damage to the boot or a noisy joint. I feel this way because the half shafts run around $70 each, while the boots are around $20, with two required per side. That extra $30 provides quite a bit of piece of mind, along with a huge reduction in frustration of installing new boots, especially when you consider the fact that to do the boots the right way, you have to pull the shaft anyway.

Well that's my .02, hope it helps.

Pat

[BagelPirate]

Thanks, sounds like you nailed it pat.

I was checking the CV boot next to the tire and it seemed fine, so it must be that inner one, since it definately is more of a thunking too.