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wiccanferret
03-27-2004, 08:59 PM
Sorry about the long post, but there are all sorts of odd things going on with my car right now.

This is a doozie. The car just came out of the shop for front brake pads and a thermostat.

1.) It's still heating up. No air in the system, brand new radiator, brand new stat, brand new rad cap. It spewed out of the new rad cap anyway, earlier today.

2.) Now it's making this gawd awful, loud, rapid thunking noise. It started doing it every once in a while when you would lightly hit the brakes. Then, after about an hour of delivering, it got constant. When you're just going down the road, you hear the rapid-fire thunking noise, but there is no perceivable performance differences. You can feel slight vibration in the steering wheel. When you turn to the right, it goes away completely until you're straight again. When you turn to the left, it makes it worse. But it sounds like it's coming from dead center, under the front of the car. If someone were to tell me there were a elf dribbling a golf ball in the transmission , I would believe them. When you hit the brakes, it gets louder and louder until you're about three quarter of the way down the pedal, and then it goes silent. If you go fast enough it goes silent.

2a.) The brakes are making thunking sounds when you take off like they're sticking.

3.) The car was acting like it's front wheels were seriously out of balance recently, but only at certain highway speeds. Normal symptoms, getting worse when you hit the brakes and such. Could this have caused a problem? Could this have been something other than tire balance?

4.) The transmission stops using OD every once in a while. While this is not new to this car, it's done it twice in two days...that is more often than normal.

Is there a chance that something is loose in the brakes? They feel fine.

ophidia
03-27-2004, 11:50 PM
As far as the thunking noise, this is happening with my 2000, and it is the passenger side front wheel bearing. It thunks when going straight and to the left, and goes away going right. I can feel it in the steering wheel, and occasionally the brake pedal feels funny. Judging from the feel of it, it must be messing with the ABS sensor, because it feels like the ABS is going off! This is being fixed Monday.

I'd have the bearings checked.

As far as your OD, I got nuthin'

Chris

wiccanferret
03-28-2004, 10:46 AM
Could be a wheel bearing. I don't think it's ever had one replaced. In most cases I've dealt with personally, they make more of a whirring noise, so I didn't even consider wheel bearing.

krazysmurf
03-28-2004, 07:37 PM
wheel bearing
mine does the thunkin sound too

wiccanferret
03-28-2004, 11:18 PM
Hey, you guys are making me hopeful. I'll be very happy if it's something that simple...especially something that old that was going to go anyway.

wiccanferret
03-28-2004, 11:20 PM
How long have you guys been going on a bad wheel bearing? I'm wondering if it's good to go back and forth to work (3 mile round trip) for a week or two as is.

ophidia
03-29-2004, 07:32 AM
I've made a couple of 160 mile trips with mine. I thought it was tires initially, since I bought the car used with high miles. I'd say you'd be fine, but I'm not the authority, by any means.
Chris

ophidia
03-29-2004, 09:47 PM
This is the best: Got mine replaced today. Before it went thunkthunkthunk. NOW it goes grindgrindgrind. The replacement is bad too! Isn't that wonderful...

wiccanferret
03-30-2004, 12:04 AM
Grindgrindgrind might be a motor mount that you just weren't noticing before. Hopefully you have a nice mechanic that will help you out...

ophidia
03-30-2004, 07:14 AM
It's already diagnosed as teh wheel bearing. The way things are going it wouldn't surprise me, though.

ophidia
03-30-2004, 05:07 PM
All fix0red. SHe's all quiet again. Time to start thinking about struts tho-- never ends...

antoniobanderas
03-30-2004, 05:54 PM
so,you said its all fine now ,so,what was the problem?
you did not said for sure only that all its silent now

ophidia
03-30-2004, 06:03 PM
Oh, it was the replacement wheel bearing. Yesterday, after I picked it up, I had it checked by a different garage to be sure-- and the new wheel bearing was making the horrible grinding sound when turning either left or right. I called the original garage back and *****ed, and they got it back in today and put in a good one.
They had originally said that they thought it was just strut tower bearings and nothing to worry about. They clearly did not test drive it, and, when I left from picking it up that day, I had to get right back to work so couldn't go back in...
Such is life.

wiccanferret
03-30-2004, 11:01 PM
Mine was a messed up brake pad. They connected the brake pad correctly and everything is fine.