Mazda Repair: rear noise, wheel drive cars, control arm bushings

Question
my vehicle is a dodge durango 4x4 2002
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Followup To

Question -
upon turning left or right My vehicle makes a whoomp whoomp sound.  The steering wheel very quietly whines on occasion when turning it.  I have taken it to shop and they say could be bearings, but not sure.  They only listened to the noise.  What would you suggest to do next?  What could it be?

Answer -
Without knowing the make and model of the vehicle I am unable to go all that far into a diagnosis due to the varying styles of bearing used in many of today’s vehicles.

I would suggest that you have the cars rear suspension examined to determine if you have bad wheel bearings or simply worn control arm bushings. You could also have a bad differential or ailing CV shaft or axle bearing if your car happens to be rear wheel drive or all wheel drive. All wheel drive cars also usually have a torque sensitive center differential that can cause this problem.

Before you do anything though, take it in and have them perform a 4 wheel alignment to the vehicle. That should find any aliments in the suspension or bearings without having to take the car apart.

The steering wheel whine is common to a power steering problem and I would not classify it as a related problem to the whomping wheel. Try checking the power steering fluid and fill if necessary. When they perform the alignment, if you have any leaks in the steering rack or box if so equipped they will tell you. You may add a power steering additive avalable at any parts store to it to try to aleviate the problem if you find that the problem gets worse. If it gets dramatically worse in a short period you will need to have it serviced and ether replace the steering rack, box, or pump depending on its configuation.

Regards,

John


Answer
You should really have it sent in to be fixed and let them tell you exactly what it was afterwards. So many things stand out in the Durango line for drive train problems that stem from the use of On Demand 4WD and AWD on the Fly that quite a few things could be causing this. My best advice on what it could be is anything in the neighborhood of the rear axel assembly. As I am unsure as to this cars configuration at present, if it were to have Independent Rear Suspension the possibility of a bad rear CV shaft or a bad bearing becomes very possible as well as a possible bad rear differential unit. The straight axel trucks use a DANA / Spicer unit that has a few unique gremlins all their own. Such as an externally adjustable rear differential and a rear bearing design that is incredibly poor in conception.

But, the statement remains the same. Don't drive it, get it towed to a garage and have it fixed. It is not safe to drive .


Regards,


John