Steering Clunk

[alexrex20]

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Edited May 16, 2009 by alexrex20

[vengeful]

anyway, i've had a clunk in my driver's side front suspension for a few months now. it seems to be more obvious when it's cold. if i toss the car left and right with quick abrupt inputs to the steering wheel, you can feel a clunk in the floor and steering wheel. the clunk is also noticed when you're driving over bumpy surfaces.

 

Hmm...sounds like it could be Steering Rack Bushings...or maybe Tie Rod Ends.

 

i've looked and looked, and looked some more, and i can't pinpoint the origin of the clunk. the struts are OEM with 150k miles, but i've rocked the pathfinder left and right to simulate the clunk, and it's definitely not coming from the strut. i had my hand on the top nut/strut mount, on the coil perch, on the base of the strut itself, and it's in my opinion that the strut is not the culprit. i've looked at my sway bar bushings (seem ok) and my sway bar end links (also in great shape), and have ruled out the ball joint and control arm bushings. all of them have acceptable amounts of play (zero play in ball joint, obviously). what the heck else could it be?

 

Yep, still thinking Steering Rack Bushings or maybe Tie Rod Ends.

 

i noticed that the steering rack bushings may have some lateral play, allowing the rack to move left and right about 5-7mm. could this be the source of the clunk?

 

DING DING DING DING DING....We have a winner!!! Steering rack should NOT move at all...this could create a potentially unsafe situation where your steering rack becomes completely detached from the subframe preventing you from steering AT ALL.

 

The steering rack bushings are a very common replacement part on R50s, at about your mileage. I had to replace mine at about 140k. The drivers side bushing gets it much worse than the passenger side bushing, because it's directly under the oil filter, and you can't help but spill oil out of it. We all know what dirty 5W-30 does to rubber bushings!

 

i'm going on a wheelin' trip this weekend and don't want anything to fail on the trail, but i don't want to blindly start replacing parts. i've taken it wheeling several times since the clunk started, and it hasn't gotten worse. forget about it?

 

Fix them first. It takes like 15 minutes, and they're about $20 from the dealer.