09 Dodge Caliber front end help

cargirl98

I have an 09 dodge caliber. I have replaced the rack & pinion (1.5yrs ago), the shocks & struts, brakes, tie rods, lower control arms, swaybar bushings & wheel bearings(all within the last 2 months). The front end still has major popping noises when driving. The mechanic I have been using says my rack and pinion is bad again. Can that really be true? Can anyone tell me if I am missing something? I love this car and it is mine so I'm trying to keep it going for awhile longer. I just can not afford to keep fixing things and the problem still not go away. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

cargirl98

Took my car to just tires and my issue was loose bolts! I can't believe it!! No more noise. Oh, and my rack n pinion is fine too!! Thank God!!!!!

Mr_Shiftright

Gee, that seems like something your mechanic should have checked first thing. It's a case of don't assume anything. Glad you got it squared away.

Did you replace all that stuff in an attempt to get rid of the noise, or were these items actually worn out? How many miles on this vehicle?

thecardoc3

Mr_Shiftright said:

Gee, that seems like something your mechanic should have checked first thing.

All mechanics are not trained/experienced equally and not until after someone has encountered and solved a given issue are they likely to recognize it. While it might seem to be "so simple" once the answer is provided, the reality is that most people will fail to initially identify the sound of a loose wheel or suspension bolt(s). That's why we see people drive a car with loose lug nuts until the wheel actually falls off. They don't recognize the sound as something that critical if they notice it at all and often drive the car tens if not hundreds of miles with the noise that it makes.

Consider this. Take a shop that has a routine in place that has a second technician confirm that all of the lug nuts are tight on every job. The result is the techs could start and maybe go all the way through their careers and never experience a situation where a car has loose wheel lugs. How likely do you really think they will be to think that's what a given sound might be if they have never encountered it?

Here is a similar failure. Picture a car that has a loss of power/drivability problem because the air filter is actually plugged up. It's much more difficult to diagnose than most would imagine because techs can go decades (if not their entire career) without ever seeing it happen. Every body generally replaces the filter long before it ever truly get's restricted so almost no-one is experienced enough to legitimately diagnose that failure. Now they may just stumble across it and most probably do, but not actually diagnose it. There is a difference.

Mr_Shiftright said:

It's a case of don't assume anything. Glad you got it squared away.

It should always be don't assume anything, which is why when people often ask what a noise could be any attempt at an answer is more likely to be wrong than right.