ideas anybody please! , clunking/knocking noise from front axles/diff?

[subywagon]

i have a bastard of a clunking/knocking noise and no idea what it is?!?!?!? i have new struts and springs tophats are fine, have done the dogbone bush on bottom sway bar, bottom ball joints, tie rod end on drivers side other side is ok and have done passenger side control arm other side is fine. i cant see any wear or signs of bashing anywhere and am now unsure to what the noise is , and its getting louder all mounts look fine. any ideas on what it could be ? front diff? cvs ?

[Stodart]

CV joints by the sounds of it, inboard one/s gone if clunking continuously in a straight line.

outboard one/s gone when clicking/clunking turning corners , it would pay to renew all 4 CVs

[rslegy]

I would b checking mounts motor, gbox and diff as they may look fine until u use a bar to lift and drop them

[subywagon]

cheers for the input guys , its not really a clicking sound more of a knock and seems to only do it at low speed in a straight line but always knocks when i turn , engine mounts are ok will check gearbox mounts on weekend .

[axle117]

Sounds like your centre diff has given up the ghost bro. I had the same symptoms and it turned out to be the diff.

[subywagon]

i hope not , is there a way i can check that without taking out box?

[tebbyj]

Have you done both the D bushes on the swaybar?

Have seen heaps that look okay but make the exact same noise your describing. Only at slow speed usually when turning. Its like a clunky rattly noise, sounds like its coming from by your feet (ish).

[lachlan]

you dont have to drop box to get centre diff out . it comes off the rear of the box in the car

[subywagon]

i have replaced the endlinks but 2nd hand so nothing flash , i dont think the noise was there at the time (had a few problems when i bought it) but ill look at new ones .

is the centre diff pretty simple to get out then? i havent dealt with the gearbox much

[SWAGGN]

check the gbox wherer your front half shafts come out of, i had a simular noise one night then the gbox would go into gear and just made a loud crunching noise when i would give it some gas, turned out that i put a nice big whole in the side of the gbox where the half shafts go into the gbox

[loner]

Forget looking at the centre diff yourself... you will be in over your head in no time.

Just get a mechanic to take it for a drive round the block... they may be able to

diagnose it easily just from the sound.

[subywagon]

@loner . i have done 2 engine swaps now and stripped the engine down when it got rebuilt (among other things) since i\'ve had this car , sorry i don\'t know shit about what the noise is, or much about inside the gearbox/diff which is why i am asking on here . i have a friend who is a mechanic he just hasn\'t worked on many subarus to this extent and cant put his finger on what the noise is without pulling it apart and being my daily driver trying to diagnose a problem and fix on either sat afternoon or sunday is kinda hard and so dont reply acting like the man who knows all (did you read the title????) thanks to everyone else tho, i will be pulling her apart tomorrow and looking at other things now will post on progress.

[loner]

 subywagon said:

@loner . i have done 2 engine swaps now and stripped the engine down when it got rebuilt (among other things) since i\'ve had this car , sorry i don\'t know s*** about what the noise is, or much about inside the gearbox/diff which is why i am asking on here . i have a friend who is a mechanic he just hasn\'t worked on many subarus to this extent and cant put his finger on what the noise is without pulling it apart and being my daily driver trying to diagnose a problem and fix on either sat afternoon or sunday is kinda hard and so dont reply acting like the man who knows all (did you read the title????) thanks to everyone else tho, i will be pulling her apart tomorrow and looking at other things now will post on progress.

:

I was trying to be helpful. It didn\'t sound like you\'d cope taking the centre diff out... I\'ve been there, and fucked things up and had to spend $$$ to put it right.

[Johnnynz]

Cmon Loren, seriously man make sure you use your ESP to know the mans exact circumstances before you try and be helpful with his vague question k?

[loner]

Yeah, I just saw that he was one of those guys that changes a bazzillion parts without knowing what is broken in

the first place... and thought I\'d better try and stop him doing some serious damage

[Guest]

Internet diagnostics where you cant even hear a video of the noise recorded thro some s*** device are never good tbh and even worse without it. It could be a clunky knock or a knocky clunk its hard to interpret by looking at the word clunk.

No doubt you could take the diff out but what hes saying is without knowing what to look for its going to make no difference whether its in the car or out. Would need to give it to someone who knows or geartech etc which puts car off the road unless you just swap the diff out then its going and you can eliminate that.

Try turning circles both ways at hard lock if CV it will be hell obvious but a mech would pick that up. Can you feel it thro the gearstick? Does it do it in neutral? Rolling down a hill with engine off? Clutch in/out?

[Guest]

Could be swaybar d bushes also. Knocky strut? Still look tight and everything but need a regrease?

[Rosssub]

 Stodart said:

CV joints by the sounds of it, inboard one/s gone if clunking continuously in a straight line.

outboard one/s gone when clicking/clunking turning corners , it would pay to renew all 4 CVs

+1, low speed high pitched pinging/clicking in straight line-inner cv, wind down both front windows and listen, you may be able to tell which side it is?

Then the louder deeper knocking while turning tight from outer cv on the same side.

What condition are your cv boots in? cracked/perished?

If a noise is engine speed/wheel speed related it aint no bushy?

[subywagon]

yea i get what he saying but all the parts i have changed needed fixing only the control arms and suspension have been changed in search for this noise, even tho im not really worried about money as ive spent bout 6g already on her im not changing parts just for fun, just ran out of ideas, is anybody in hawkes bay region? maybe i could use your ear

[subywagon]

i will post a video of the noise soon

[subywagon]

[subywagon]

everything looks ok underneath put a bar on bushes and control arm mounts doesn\'t seem to be excessive play in anything but the silicone bush on the LH control arm is leaking again which i only changed a month ago but being 2nd hand arm it could of been stuffed to start with

[Stodart]

 subywagon said:

posssibly worn steering rack? listening to the clunks as turning steering wheel back and forth

[Guest]

Sounds steering rack/bushes or maybe strut knock. Noise is coming from the front no rear ae?

[subywagon]

yea coming from the front , could it be moving inside the rack? it looks fine from underneath