Hay everyone, Have a question for ya, what makes a comaro or firebird sound like a thump when you make a hard turn either left or right while moving? I know it has to be something to do with the steering but cant figure it out. I looked all under the car and cant find what it might be. Any sudjestions???

 

its not quite a thumping sound, but maybe your tire is rubbing against the inner wheel wel?

 

no, its not the tire rubing anything. I already check that. its not a constant thump. let me explain again. during normal driving it is fine, but when i have to turn real hard like if i was making a u turn, there is a suden one time thump like something is in a bind and gives away. It happens anytime I make either a right or lefthand hard turn.

 

This probably isn't the problem, but I'll chime in anyway. I had a defective shock from Bilstein on the front passenger side that made a popping/thumping noise when I hit a bump or indentation in the road a certain way - it was especially bad when making left-hand turns on bad roads.

Turns out the shock was basically doing nothing - gave the car a real "boaty" feel (it sucked!). So, you may want to have the shock checked out. By applying pressure to it a certain way the sound could be reproduced outside the vehicle (when the shock was off the car).

On a happy note, with the shock replaced handling increased dramatically.

 

you know, if im doing a sharp turn, like pulling in the driveway, and i go up a incline, mine somtimes pops too....

from the feel of things, its like a ball joint that has a rough spot or somthing....

 

having the same problem with my rs pulling out of the driveway

 

Sway bar end link broken? Check the fronts and rears.

 

ill check as soon as i wipe the sleep oput of my eyes lol

 

Mine does it too and when I was getting my alignment,the guy said my centerlink was bad.The centerlink isn't suppsed to move up or down and mine does.Just something for ya to look at.

 

its pretty cold out here in michigan and i have a friend who has his own shop so ill just take it over there to him when i get my exhaust and have him check it out and keep ya posted

 

Check your upper strut mounts, and all sway bar connection points as they are under alot of pressure doing the turns that you are talking about. Even if they look good, take them down and lube the bushings up and see if that helps.

 

Most likely:

1) idler arm
2) strut mounts (KWIK84)
3) ball joints
4) center link (87TPI)
5) struts (Adam Jones has shocks on the front of his?)
6) sway bar (di11avou)
7) frame mount for steering box
8) anything else that might be loose up front
9) large rodent caught in undercarriage

Forgot:
10) improperly indexed spring
11) a-arm bushings bad

 

im thinking it might be the struts because the guy i bought the car from has a new set sitting in my trunk but still have to get it up to my buddies shop or pray for a 60 degree day lol

 

my GTA does the same and i had a teacher tell me that it can be a start of an inner outter tierod going bad... i dont know if that is the deff answer just a lil bit of input

 

I have the same problem. It ended up being that the tires would catch the plastic inner fenders near full lock.

 

My car made popping noises during turns (happened progressively more and more), over bumps it sounded like chains rattling, and the front was loose.
Right before I put in the $600 order in susp. parts to fix the problem, I looked under the car. My front endlink busings (bolt that connects the sway bar to the control arm) were basically gone. I bought $4.99 moog endlinks from Autozone, put them on, and ALL the ailments stopped. A few vibration dampings and trunk trim tightening later, my car sounds like new (except over nasty potholes ).

 

seems like a lot of 3rd gen owners have this problem. my car does it (its a lot worse on an incline). usually its the strut mounts...i guess they werent designed well. there are about 3-4 GM technical service bulletins on this issue. i could post them if anyone wants me to

 

i havent had a chance to take a look at her yet but im hoping to get her in the garage on stands on a warmer day,but with the way the weather has been here its frickin freezin,im hoping its something simple and with the way mine and my buddys hours between my work and his shop doesnt leave us much time to get her up in the air

 

If its the endlinks, u may want to check it while its on the ground. In my case, when on the ground, I could grab the endlinks and shake them by hand, showing how extremely loose and bad they were. BUT, when I had it lifted, the weight of the control arm pulling on the endlink made it taunt, where if I hadn't checked it while on the ground, I would have assumed they were fine.

But yea, the cold $uck$.

 

thanks for the good info because i was just gonna put it up in the air and check it that way plus i noticed my steering wheel has some play in it

 

Sully's right, when you lift it up you want to check everything with the suspension loaded if possible. Steering wheel play, if related, points to worn steering components. Start at the box and work out. I like to put the a-arms on jackstands so the suspension's loaded and the wheels will turn. As you turn the steering shaft you can look for the play in centerlink/tie rods. Check idler arm for vertical movement (bad).

 

awesome ! thanks for all the great info and ill keep you guys posted! did i mention thats its freezin outside lol

 

Check the front sway bar end links-disassemble one and you might find that the hole in the lower a-frame has wallowed out. The long bolt that runs through the end link ***'y could be shifting. Need to disassemble both sides simulataneously otherwise you'll never get just one side back together again (too much 'twist' in the sway bar for you to pull back into alignmnet).

 

can you post them?

thx

 

i no no longer have access to them