Seriously...

So, I've been trying to diagnose a problem with my suspension for a little while now, as it's starting to really...um...worry/scare me to drive the car. But...I've got to as it's the only car I got, so repair is of the most importance.

I've been having a popping noise.
It pops while turning the wheel at low speeds
It pops while braking
It pops when accelerating
It pops from shifting weight (IE, cornering, braking, accelerating)
It squeaks/creaks/whines/moans/whatever you get the idea...sounds like an old bed frame, while turning the wheels left and right at a stop, or at low speeds, or when the suspension loads and unloads (IE A Dip in the road)
Suspension no longer feels "Smooth" While the car rides ok, it feels as if there are a lot of vibrations and jostling when moving across rougher roads that I didn't notice earlier in the life of the car.

after searching the forum for a while, I found, that while the problems are common...they are not common ALL TOGETHER. Lots of people have pops in their suspension, but non that encompass such a wide scope

But, after some deliberation, I went out and replaced the Strut Mounts...it helped for about a week or so.
When I say, I mean, it didn't FIX the problem...it just sorts helped.
After the strut mounts were done the creaking/squeaking/groaning from turning the wheels went away. I was like YAY!...now to fix the rest.

...a week later the sound not only came back, but two-three days AFTER the sound came back, I'm noticing it get drastically worse.

So I started digging again, and it seems I may have a spring reseating itself....constantly...but i'm at a loss as to why....
Not to mention all the popping didn't go away with new front strut mounts...in fact, two weeks after...it's now worse than before.

Did more reading and found that it may be blown struts...

Now for my Examination

I put the front end on jack stands, with one front wheel on the ground at a time, and tested for play in the CV joints. The wheel seemed solid. No left or right play, tugged on the wheel, jostled it around...no play in the wheel hub or axles

Next I put the car on the ground, grabbed the back of the engine and rocked it slightly, no movement aside from normal. Put a jack under the engine and put slight pressure to see if the engine would shift....no movement. Visually inspected the mounts...they look fine.

When replacing the Strut Mounts I noticed the passenger side mount did have some squeak to it when rotated, so I thought that may have been the problem. Once replaced, squeak went away for a week or two only to come back much much MUCH worse.

The Car had new Monroe Gas-Matics put on (The blue ones) four or five years ago, with probably only 15-20k on them...at best. The whole car doesn't have but 74K on it!
Not to mention when the Shocks were done, the was a new rack and pinion put on as well

now I'm hoping to find and answer cause school (50 miles away) starts in a week and a half, and I HAVE to have this at the very least, if not fixed, capable of safely sustaining highway speeds for up to an hour or more at a time.

SO, here's my plan of action!! PLEASE CHIME IN! THIS WAY A BROKE COLLEGE KID DOESN'T END UP FIXING STUFF THAT AINT BROKE

I'ma save up and put new shocks on the car. Probably just Monroe or Gabriel OEM replacements till I can afford a good set of performance oriented suspension components
Replace the Tie rod ends and Ball Joints

if that doesn't work, then I'll start back at the CV axles and replace them
if that doesn't work, I'll check and replace the control arm and swaybar bushings.

HELP!!!! BTW, the car is an '02 2200 Auto Coupe, if that helps at all. Funny enough, the only sound I hear out of the rear end is the rear drums needing rebuilt, as they creak a little when the parking brake is applied.

BUT THIS FRONT IS KILLING ME (Sarcasm...but for real, if I don't fix it, it really might end up killing me.)

So there is NO play in the wheel when the car is jacked up? Seems unlikely with as much noise/clunking your getting.

If you jack the car up (let the wheel and suspension hang, what I mean is to jack the car from the sub frame, not suspension) and see if there is any movement. Left to right - probably tie rods. in and out - could be several things but mostly associated with bad wheel bearing. All around slop - ball joints.

Sorry if you have already done all of those things, but I figure it cant hurt to be 100% sure before you start replacing 100$ CVs.



It sounds to me like bushings, when they go they tend to sound exactly like what your describing, and they are likely to fail if they sit for a long time.

Look at the lower control arm REAR bushing. It's the one that looks similar to a hockey puck - is it still attached/in good shape? (I just replaced two sets of these on saturn IONs, though I understand they're not Js, they are still very similar suspensions)


If that is not the case, I would (before swapping ANYTHING else) assume bad ball joints or tie rods...or both.

It is odd to me that your having MORE issues after replacing your strut mounts. Where did you get them? Where they installed correctly? Did you torque the center nut? (please don't take this the wrong way, I just want to help - and have to rule out ALL possibilities.)

The Strut Mounts are Monroe Mounts purchased from Advance Auto. I assumed I installed them correctly. Marked the relation of the mount to spring, and spring to shock before I took the strut apart to make sure everything was lined up when it went back together. Got the new mount, compressed the spring, removed top nut (Was a PITA...Power tools= savior), removed the old mount, replaced the mount, put the nut back on, made sure everything looked just like it did when it came apart, and installed into the car. With the strut in the tower the nut was torqued to 80 something ft/lbs like directed in my lovely Haynes Manual, the two bolts that hold the strut to the hub assembly was torqued to like 130 ft/lbs like was told in the manual, and the nuts that held the mount to the tower were torqued to something like 18 ft/lbs or whatever the manual said.

I'll be sure to put the car back on jacks and check again...who knows it could be another part failed and went unnoticed due to stress from other suspension components failing. I agree that it's better to "Make sure it's broke" before fixing it...just "Throwing Money" at a problem isn't always the best solution.

Checked it again, and saw something overlooked from before. While the ball joints look awsome the tie rod end on the passenger side has the rubber boot cracked...as in almost split open on one side. I'm betting that's probably one of the problems right there with the popping....a bad tie rod end. But Would that explain ALL my symptoms? No play in the wheel, the sway bar bushings look fine. The Control arm bushings are attached and look ok from what I could tell. Not a lot of room to look around under there, but from what I could see, it looked fine.

The driver's side tie rod end looked fine, aside from some dry rot on the rubber boot, but I'm not noticing any problems out of the driver's side either.
I was noticing in earlier threads I'd searched, there was an issue with the greasing the Intermediate shaft on the '02 models...which is what I drive. Could be an issue there.