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05 Pacifica Makes Noise When Turning
jackjackson1
Member Posts: 4
in Chrysler
My 05 Pac AWD mfg'd in Aug 2004 makes a terrible binding, clunking noise when turning. The tighter the turn the worse the noise. The power transfer unit was replaced and the noise didn't change. Any ideas what else it could be?
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CV joint is built with steel balls, like bearing balls and they are mounted in slots where they can move radially as joint angle changes and they transfer force between drive shaft ends.
Over time steel balls wear dents in the slots and after enough wear has developed balls start making noise as they jump up from the dent when you make a turn and yes, the noise gets worse when you turn sharper.
An easy test if this indeed is the issue is to drive reverse and make the turn. If there is no noise it probably means that the problem is worn CV joints.
The fix for this, of course, is to replace CV joints, which probably is very expensive BUT there is another possible way to do a fix with much less money involved. This is simply to swap CV joints (drive shafts) between left and right sides.
Wear on the CV joints occurs on the side of the slot that carries the force during driving. This is why noise would not happen when driving reverse as reverse side of the slots gets very little use.
After swapping the CV joints the noise would not appear when driving and turning forward but would do so when driving and turning in reverse. But hey, reverse is so small amount of driving that it really does not bother anybody.
Swapping CV joints, of course, would not be possible if they made drive shafts so that they fit only on left or right side but I don't think this is the case. The other thing is that you will probably need to have joint swap done at other than dealer shop as they will want to sell you new drive shafts and will come with every possible excuse why shaft swapping cannot be done.
I know joint swap works because I did it on two Saab cars that I owned in the past.
Arrie
I don't know what to think. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Did you try driving reverse and turning to see if it makes the noise?
Arrie
That noise is possibly coming from a metal dampener / weight that is located behind front passenger fender. I too thought it was cv joint, ball joint, shock, and various other stuff. If you get under car, (no jack required) and look around where the fake circular fog lamp is. you will see a metal round 3-5 pound weight that is loose. It will bang and clunk a lot especially if you turn on direction in particular. you should be able to reach with your hand and see if its loose.
Follow up:
I just took it off. Don't know what it does. Probably extra parts. Car is quiet and runs fine.