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Creaking/Popping When Turning Wheel at a Stop

32K views 66 replies 26 participants last post by  stealth09  
#1 · (Edited)
So I've been having this strange creaking/popping noising coming from my right front corner. It seems to happen only when I'm at a stop or when I'm creeping along under 5MPH. When I turn my steering wheel left OR right it makes the noise. It kind of sounds like a spring being coiled up and then some clicks/pops. I feel it very slightly in the steering wheel when it pops. I'd say the sound/symptoms present themselves 75% of the time.

My endlinks were JUST replaced with adjustable ones so I know its not that. Also, my suspension was just installed a month or so ago and its just presenting itself now so I doubt it has anything to do with that. I inspected the spring and strut assemble and things in the general vacinity. Could control arms on their way out make this noise? My FCAB is NOT worn... I checked. In general, the car feels very solid and doesn't have ANY vibration or pulls to one side or the other. Just this very odd sound.

Any insight would be much appreciated! I'll probably get the car up on jack stands over the Thanksgiving break to have a look. I hope the sound is audible from outside the car... I'll probably get it up and have a friend turn the steering wheel. Just looking to see if anyone has had this happen before.

Thanks!!!
 
#3 ·
It's impossible to know what might be making your noise but you're right to look to get the car in the air to check things. That said, you may want to try to see if you can pull the car onto an incline (end of a steep driveway or whatever) so you can underneath without having to raise the car. Your noise may require the weight of the car pressing down on the suspension and you might not be able to replicate it on jack stands.

As far as remote diagnosis, given all the "new" stuff you have in there, I wouldn't rule anything out. In fact I'd START checking all the new parts you've installed as it's possible one of those has either worked loose or is bumping into something. Good luck with your diagnosis.
 
#5 ·
To clarify, the issue is NOT on the left and right side. It is ONLY on the right side (passenger) but occurs when I turn the wheel left and right at a stop or near stop. Also, the sound really does sound like an old mattress spring being pulled apart and compressed and plucked.

The endlinks are the most recently installed part. I will double check that they have been installed correctly but its sort of hard to mess up two bolts per side. The FCABs have been on the car for at least 15,000 miles and never presented the sound. They are the PowerFlex polyurethane ones so I'll make sure that the bushing hasn't slipped out of the carrier. I know they're prone to that. Moving on, the suspension (coilover) kit was installed about 1,000 miles ago and initially didn't result in this sound I'm describing.

Now, with that said, the control arms on my car are the age of the car and have 53,000 miles on them. This is why I asked about the C/A's. Is this kind of sound something that'd come from a ball-joint on the C/A starting to go?

Many thanks fellas. I appreciate the advice and help! I notice that 2 out of 3 of you are in NJ! If you're up for a bit of troubleshooting fun and games... shoot me a PM and maybe we can get a small DIY/Troubleshoot-This-and-That meet?
 
#9 ·
Jared - If memory serves, you installed a coil-over setup, right? Did you do camber plates, or did you use stock perches?

My guess is the problem is with one of the following items:

1. The body of the coil over, where the adjustment/locking nut threads. If that is loose, it may try to pivot with the steering when under load. Check that for tightness.

2. The bearing in the spring perch has become damaged. This may also be the noise your hearing.

3. Tie rod ball joint may be going.

4. Remote, in my opinion, the outer ball joint on the control arm itself may be bad. I never had it make noise like that, though.

My money's on the suspension/spring perch. Have someone listen to each area while turning the wheel in a driveway. Listen to the perch from under the hood, and at each other part where they see it. It will be tough with the wheel on, but it will reveal more than guessing...

Good luck!

Ken
 
#11 · (Edited)
Jared - If memory serves, you installed a coil-over setup, right? Did you do camber plates, or did you use stock perches?

My guess is the problem is with one of the following items:

1. The body of the coil over, where the adjustment/locking nut threads. If that is loose, it may try to pivot with the steering when under load. Check that for tightness.

2. The bearing in the spring perch has become damaged. This may also be the noise your hearing.

3. Tie rod ball joint may be going.

4. Remote, in my opinion, the outer ball joint on the control arm itself may be bad. I never had it make noise like that, though.

My money's on the suspension/spring perch. Have someone listen to each area while turning the wheel in a driveway. Listen to the perch from under the hood, and at each other part where they see it. It will be tough with the wheel on, but it will reveal more than guessing...

Good luck!

Ken
Thanks for the reply, Ken! I was hoping you'd catch this thread.

The coilover system was installed using TC Kline's solid mount camber plates. The entire kit has maybe 3,000 miles on it total so I don't think any of its various parts are worn (ie spherical bearing). Now onto the few things ya mentioned...

1) I will double check the lower spring perch on that side. Its a standard setup whereby there are two rings that get tightened together and locked into place. The car was corner balanced so this point was adjusted and did not present the sound. Perhaps it loosened up at some point. I will take a look to make sure everything is tight. That's an easy enough thing to check and tackle!

2) Like I said, the entire kit is pretty damn new. Practically brand new, in fact. I doubt that the bearing inside the camber plate (spring perch) is worn. I actually thought that it might be worn a few weeks back when I had a rattle and purchased the bearing. The sound, however, was determined to be a f0cking metal plate above my dome lights. :rolleyes:

3) Possible. But I think when the car was aligned/balanced by my shop (TKX Performance) they would have noticed this being on its way out. In fact, I specifically asked them to watch for any unusual wear considering my mileage had just passed the 50K mark.

4) Good to know that you hadn't experienced that sound. Either way, the control arms are going to need to be replaced soon. With my Inspection II coming up, I may just pick up a set from BimmerWorld and have whatever shop does my Insp-II install them. BimmerWorld seems to have the M-Sport variety at the cheapest price, $299.

Thanks again man! I will definitely take a look at the car over the Thanksgiving days off and report back. I'll y'all posted!

same thing happend to me, my service advisor at the dealership saw it and showed me, it was a control arm bushings problem
Yeah, I would have DEFINITELY thought it was the bushings if I hadn't already replaced them with the PowerFlex ones. I took a quick look at the bushings through my wheels and I could see that they were not dislodged from the carrier. Then again, I suppose its possible that they have lost some of their lubrication. Maybe that is what's causing the C/A to creak along inside of the bushing hole.



When all is said and done, I just need to get my head in the fender well and have a look. The car feels solid so I don't think its a danger to drive (and I did just drive about 400 miles to Boston).
 
#14 ·
It's probably not the control arm bushings. Yes, they go bad often on these cars. Yes, they are to blame for a variety of handling, vibration, and noise issues. But, there are not the sole source of problems in the E46.

Jared's problem is most likely one of his newer suspension components that has become loose.

Fact: Worn Control Arm Bushings can cause clunking over bumps, jerky steering, and uneven tire wear.

Myth: Worn Control Arm Bushings cause window regulators to break.

As much as that analogy is a stretch, so is immediately diagnosing every clunk or vibration by suggesting worn CA bushings.

Ken
 
#15 ·
Haha! That's what I was thinking, Ken. The fact that I do have a good amount of new parts on the car makes me think that they would be the culprit. That said, the fact that my c/a's are pretty old by now makes me think that it *might* be the ball joint starting to go.

My thinking is that if it *were* the bushings, I'd have some sort of drivability impact. There'd be a pull to the right or a vibration and there is NONE. Not a single pull. Not a single vibration. Not a single sound when driving in a straight line or even turning when at speed. It only happens when stopped (or nearly stopped) and turning the wheel more than just slightly.
 
#17 ·
Haha! That's what I was thinking, Ken. The fact that I do have a good amount of new parts on the car makes me think that they would be the culprit. That said, the fact that my c/a's are pretty old by now makes me think that it *might* be the ball joint starting to go.

My thinking is that if it *were* the bushings, I'd have some sort of drivability impact. There'd be a pull to the right or a vibration and there is NONE. Not a single pull. Not a single vibration. Not a single sound when driving in a straight line or even turning when at speed. It only happens when stopped (or nearly stopped) and turning the wheel more than just slightly.
This is possible, especially since you have many new parts on the car and the geometry of the suspension has undgone a fairly significant change with the coilovers.

When changing out old components and repalcing with new you can accelerate the rate of wear on older components that may have been borderline to begin with. When I started to read through this thread, I followed Ken's logic and the first thing I thought of was a loose component that was just installed, but if all that checks out and you have camber plates installed to correct the offset then I'd look at other known problem areas like the CA ball joints.
 
#20 · (Edited)
I have the same problem and took it to the dealer yesterday, no noise going straight, no vibrations, no turning at any sort. But when turning left at 5-10mph, clunk noise.

Dealer said it was Control Arm Bushings

If it "were" the bushings, would anything happen to our cars if it were to give out??
The logical conclusion for this type of failure is the FCAB's but in JCz04Bimmer's case he's running PowerFlex FCAB's. While it's not impossible to have these fail, it is infinitesimally unlikely because of the material they're made from, AND his only have 15k miles on them. Polyurethane is the plastic that is used to make these bushings and theoretically they won't wear out in this type of application, but I'll never say never.

If FCAB's give out you'll notice strange changes in drivability, pulling to one side and may change to pulling to the other side. Nothing really instantaneously catastrophic but seriously annoying. It could be dangerous from the standpoint that it's not going to accurately go where you want it to in extreme cases.
 
#26 ·
Just jumped back to this and wondered in the original post you described the noise as a creak, is that correct? One thing that I've seen elsewhere here regarding the Powerflex bushings is that if the lube that is supposed to be applied to the bushing to allow it to rotate either dries out or isn't applied correctly the hard urethane of the bushing can make a creaking sound. I don't have them (powerflex bushings), so can't speak from personal experience, but given the preponderance of suggestions about the LCABs, this might be worth taking a look at.
 
#28 ·
I definitely would describe the sound as a "creak". I haven't had a chance to take a closer look (Turkey Day festivities and all) but I'll probably get around to it tomorrow afternoon.

The lubrication of the PowerFlex bushings is definitely something I thought of. I was thinking that with the changing temperatures here (mild then cold, etc etc) that the lubrication could have lost its effect. The thing I keep having to remind myself is that this issue presented itself very recently so its not likely a "bent shield" because I didn't hit anything or do anything that would have bent anything.

If I can't get to the bottom of the issue tomorrow, I'll just bring it to the dealership and bite the bullet with the bill given that my car just came off of warranty 3,000 miles ago. Then again, I may just hold off until I have to bring the car in for Inspection II and have it all taken care of then. I wouldn't be driving the car much until then so its not like it'd be a big safety issue if something is desperately wrong (and I doubt there is).
 
#34 ·
I have a creaking noise in the front suspension on both sides. It started last month when it got cold out. The sound comes and goes, which makes me think that it's weather related (water or temperature). Some days it sounds like I'm driving an old wooden battleship. It's actually embarassing. When I get out of the car and push down on the front bumper I get a 'eeee-rrr' noise like someone is doing the dirty on a squeaky bed. :hmm:

I suspected the Powerflex control arm bushings, so I took them off today and lubed between the bushings and between the control arm and bushing with grey colored anti-cease [sp?]. And it still creaks.

The car is a 2000 328i, and I've replaced the following within the last 2 years:

struts, control arms, CA bushings (powerflex), swaybar end links, H&R sport springs.

The tie rods are original to the car, and need replaced. When I grab either front wheel at the 9:00 and 3:00 position and push/pull, there is some play. There is NO play when I grab at the 12:00 and 6:00 position.

I'll go spray some WD-40 on the spring perches and see what that does.

:dunno:
 
#29 ·
I installed Powerflex bushings on my 330i about 3 weeks ago. It recently got REAL cold here in KC. and I have noticed this noise as well when I turn the wheel to the right all the way when backing out of the driveway. Kind of a pop. The only lube I used was dish soap to install the bushings. There was a little packet of some sort of oil/gel in the box but there was no mention of using it in the instructions or on the boards here.

Is there supposed to be a lubricant applied to the bushing before installing that stays lubricated? Doesnt make sense.

The dish soap is used because it evaporates properly....
 
#30 ·
I installed Powerflex bushings on my 330i about 3 weeks ago. It recently got REAL cold here in KC. and I have noticed this noise as well when I turn the wheel to the right all the way when backing out of the driveway. Kind of a pop. The only lube I used was dish soap to install the bushings. There was a little packet of some sort of oil/gel in the box but there was no mention of using it in the instructions or on the boards here.

Is there supposed to be a lubricant applied to the bushing before installing that stays lubricated? Doesnt make sense.

The dish soap is used because it evaporates properly....
Yes, it does make sense in this case. The lube is to go in between the outer and inner assembly of the bushing. It lubricates the bushing because PowerFelx's design allows the inner bushing slight rotation. The lubricant is a copper molybdenum suspension.

You use the dish soap to get the outer bushing into the carrier, you use the lube on the outer to inner bushing transition.
 
#31 ·
I would check the coil spring in the strut ass'y, make sure they seated correctly, and also check your inner tie rods, and what about strut towers?

If you are positive about the powerflex bushings then why don't you try to loosen them a bit just to relieve the compression and the noise will go away.
 
#33 ·
I have this same type of noise (i.e. creaking, clunking, popping). I notice it most when driving my car cold and at slow speeds. I hear the noise when accelerating, stopping, and turning. But after I have driven for about 10 minutes, the noise pretty much goes away. I also have powerflex bushings and new Meyle CAs. My noise started about a month after I put the bushings on. I did not originally apply the lube because I did not see any instructions to do so. I have gone back and relubbed the bushings 3 times with different types of lube but I still have the popping noise. This noise could be something else but since it goes away after driving for about 10 minutes, my guess is it is the bushings. I'm going to swap out my powerflex bushings for the Meyle HD bushings.
 
#39 ·
yeha im guessing its the control arms. Myne were replaced at just about 55k
 
#40 ·
Hey everyone. Sorry for dropping the ball on this thread. I actually never got around to investigating further. I haven't been able to drive the car all that often and the sound is intermittent. I got a chance to drive around this weekend and heard it when I was maneuvering in my driveway so its still there. When the weather gets warmer, I'll probably get under the car for a look. But with nearly 53K miles, I'm ready for new control arms anyway so I may not troubleshoot too intensely.
 
#41 · (Edited)
I had my car checked out but the mechanic did not hear anything. He did re-lube my bushings and also told me my rear shock mounts are very worn. But the sound I am hearing is definitely coming from the front. I'm also now starting to get some vibration in my steering wheel and a bit of tramlining. I think I have convinced myself to replace the powerflex bushings with the meyle hd bushings. The powerflex bushings have been on my car for just over 35K miles now.