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Suspecting Bad CV Joints. Asking for a Second Opinion

void33

void33

New member
2000 Grand Prix Gt 3800 w/ 207,000 miles

Case A:
When I am parked on a flat surface and turn my wheel all the way to the right from the neutral position everything seems okay. However when I turn it back all the way to the left from the far right position there is a loud knock or two during this motion, I would estimate about halfway through the turn. I get the same result when turning to the far right from the far left. I did a bit of research a while ago and found someone had a similar problem and they diagnosed it as a deteriorating CV joint.

Case B:
Recently I began to notice a loud noise, almost sort of whiny and klunky at the same time and coming from near the transmission, when I switch from reverse to neutral to drive (aka when I back out of my driveway). It doesn't happen when I go from drive to neutral to drive and I have no problems with the transmission other than this noise (which may or may not be coming from the trans). I did a small amount of research on this one as well and found that it may be the lower engine mount, which makes sense because if it is loose when I go into reverse it would pop into position X, then when I go into drive it moves into position Y causing the noise. This also explains why it doesn't happen when going from drive to neutral and back to drive.

Could these cases/noises both be related to and coming from the CV joints? My car has over 200k miles and they have never been replaced. I haven't gotten under the car to take a look yet, I thought I would get a second opinion on the forum here before I started poking my head around.

Thank you in advance!
 


with those miles, i'd change the lower mounts for sure. engine and tranny mounts.

then you want to go over the front end, jack the car up wheel still tight, then push and pull from the 9 and 3 o clock positions, if the wheel moves, the tir rods are bad. then take the wheel off, and look at your lower control arm bushings, if they are all torn up you need new lca's, they come with new bushing and a new ball joint, for about 40 a side, rather cheap.

while the wheel is off check the sway bar end links and the end of the bar for cracks, or if its snapped off, as well as the bushings to the frame where the bar is bolted down. thats a good clunk as well if its bad.

has the tranny ever been serviced? hows the fluid look? red still? or brown and burnt smelling?

if the fluids not black and cooked up, you can do a pan drop and filter change, the filter maybe clogged and causing the whine you hear from the driver side. (do not have it flushed)

check the p/s fluid as well, it could be low and causing the whine.
 
Okay I will look into replacing the mounts. I can't imagine it is overwhelming difficult? (I hope...)

I just replaced the tie rodes, hubs, and control arms within the last 18 months. Although, my sway bar bushing are definitely very noisy and have been for a while, anytime the front wheels move too far up/down they make a loud squeal/rubbing noise. I took them out about a year ago and put some grease on them and the noises went away for a while but came back. I never checked for cracks though...

I'm not sure if the transmission has ever been serviced. I will take a look at the fluid levels/colors in a little bit and post what I find.

Thank you for all of your help!
 
Okay so I wasn't able to get to the power steering fluid but I am pretty confident that is not the culprit. I did take a look at the trans fluid and it is brown, but could brown trans fluid really be making this noise? I played with it a bit more just now (going forwards to backwards to forwards again) in the driveway and I am really starting to think it is an engine mount or the axle...
 
brown fluids not good. a used tranny or a rebuild is in your future. the only thing you can do for it at this point is drop the pan, change the filter, put the pan back on, dump 1 quart of some lucas trans medix type stuff first, , then add up to 7 quarts of new dex 3 tranny fluid.

mounts are easy. http://www.grandprixforums.net/how-change-lower-motor-mount-trans-mount-77238.html if you have 2 jacks, and no jack stands, you can just do one side at a time.
 
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