When sitting at a stoplight, or intersection, if I get on the gas hard instantly I can hear a loud clanging the instant the vehicle starts moving, then stops. Just noticed it today at an uphill light, I've never heard it before, its one of those sounds that makes you cringe. Any ideas what this could be? Also have been able to hear a metal on metal grinding when the wheel is full steer left, but not right for about a month now. I keep the chassis lubricated, every oil change. The loud clanging and the scraping when turning both seem to be coming from the left front. Ball joint? Thanks for the help.

 

check the opwer steering fluid. Or it may be a noisy pulley bearing. My previous alternator was annoying, it made noises.

 

Well, the alternator is only about a year old. And I just topped the power steering pump up, it was a little low.

 

could it be the wear indicators on the pads?

Noise definately originating from the front right?

 

its way too loud to be the wear indicators. not as high of a pitch either, more of a scraping.

 

You should look into the power steering more closely. First ck. the belt for wear and/or slipping it could just that simple. Then check out your pump and then steering box. I have this exact problem on one of mine, I replaced the belt then the pump, turns out the box could not handle the posi front end, I have a heavy duty EGR box that I am going to put in to solve the problem.

 

The belt is only about a year old. Would the pump going bad cause screeching under straightline acceleration though? And it only does it in one direction when turning, not the other direction. The pump made some noise when cold this past winter, but has since stopped.

 

Check your wheel bearings.

 

If the steering pump pully was not moving as freely as it should you would get noise under acceleration depending on how hard you accelerated and how bad the pump was. As for it only happening when you turn only one direction, it is strange but mine does the same thing. My culprit was the steering box putting too much of a strain on the pump.

Another question, when you make the turn does the steering return to the straight postion or does it keep wanting to turn ? If it does want to keep turning then you are looking at a bad joint.

You can ck the bearings by jacking up the front and pull/ push the tire in and out if it has excessive play, then the bearings should be checked also you should have some vibrate and/or shake.

 

I dont have any vibrations or shake, but there seems to be a lot of play in the steering, more than it used to have. The wheel does return to the straight position. So, the belt is only about a year old, so its the pump, steering box, or could it be the belt tensioner? It doesnt sound like a belt squeeling sound. My friends Bronco has a bad tensioner and it sounds a lot different.