[Stacolts]

Last summer I put Rancho RSX struts (w/ Monroe Strut Mounts) on my '04 Pathy LE. The ride is much improved, however I noticed a deep popping/crunching noise when the wheel was pinned for a slow turn in 2wd. This was infrequent, but made me upset Once it got cold I tried using "Auto" mode and the noise is so bad on turns that I brought it back to be looked at. The mechanic didn't think it was strut related (of course), so he checked the front drive axle, greased it, and still made the noise. He then took apart the front differential, and he found nothing suspicious. Finally, I made them replace the Monroe sturut mounts with OEM mounts after reading numerous posts. Still making the noise, especially when turning in 4H and AUTO.

I am now bringing it to the dealer (yes, the DEALER) to have someone try to diagnose it. What's left?

CV Joints?
Ball joints?
Sway bar links?
Coil seat?

HELP!

 

[dvdswanson]

coil seat? most have a bushing/rubber seat that is supposed to be there, do you have that?

 

[Stacolts]

Update

Took it to the dealer. After driving it back and forth 2 mechanics said it was the splines inside of the driveaxle which had borken apart. It's about a $1400 job or $700 with a remanufacutred driveaxle. Fortunately I have a 100k warranty with Resource Automotive, and they agreed to pay for the reman'd driveaxle. Hopefully this will work. I spent $600 out of pocket to re-install OEM strut mounts which didn't help.

 

[NPath]

Took it to the dealer. After driving it back and forth 2 mechanics said it was the splines inside of the driveaxle which had borken apart. It's about a $1400 job or $700 with a remanufacutred driveaxle. Fortunately I have a 100k warranty with Resource Automotive, and they agreed to pay for the reman'd driveaxle. Hopefully this will work. I spent $600 out of pocket to re-install OEM strut mounts which didn't help.

How did you do that?!

That reminds during the time 2 Jeep YJ's snapped their Dana 35 axles on the same hill.

 

[polynet]

The same thing happened to me, I'm trying to get more 'in-tune' with doing my own car work and I had a friend show me how to replace my struts with Rancho's...

The Rancho's went in fine, but what seemed to happen was while we were taking the old struts out, I think we pushed down on the axle and the CV joint popped out inside the boot. Didn't realize that happened until it was backtogether and we heard that same exact grinding.

I would have to say it was your original installer who was covering up their mess.

On another note... I ended up blowing out those Racho's because I didn't replace the coils at the same time, they were worn too much. I think that the NYC potholes ended up compressing theshocks too much and then they were worthless.