hope everyone had a good thanksgiving.

the popping has been happening since i received the car. i did the sway bar links and brakes out of necessity, but also hoping they would fix the problem. anyway here are the links to two videos. the first is the noise from outside the car, and the second from within. instead of a popping sound this time, it's more of a clunky grinding. i dunno, tell me what you think.



thanks
wes

wes:

I looked and listened to both videos. Of course on Youtube it is not like being there. The outside video is more telling, and I am afraid it is major. I would have placed a hand on the caliper, on the hub assembly and on the transmission feeling for a bump or hit. That would have told me where to look further.
I think I saw a wobble on the half shaft near the transmission.
I suggest taking appart the brake assy, hub assy, take out the half shaft and look feel inside the transaxle where the half shaft inserts. I think you will have to take it all apart anyway.

Ditto what Tan said, looks like you have axle issues.

Mmmm. not good news. i have mechanical skills but not exactly mechanic skills. it doesn't look too complicated but is this something i may end up sending to the shop? i mean, if i can replace radiators and water pumps and brake cylinders, is this something i can tackle? i may have the day off tomorrow anyway, so i may just go for it.

In your case I would take it to a shop, if you dont have the right tools you will ruin parts (ball joints, tie rod ends etc.) Plus your looking at 4-5 hours at least if your good and all your parts are correct from the shop. A shop will also give you a warranty on the work for some time whereas you cant warranty your own work except with your wallet.

well i was going to go ahead and give it a shot. then i stopped and thought, i need to figure out where the sound is coming from first, right?, i mean if it's not in one of the cv joints, then it's coming from the transaxle, and that's way beyond my capabilities and pulling the axle off would just be a wast of time. am i correct in thinking this?

Yes but you can check by hand and wiggle the axle itself and see if its the joint or something deeper inside. With the engine off of course!!

When I wiggle the axle it has a little play much not so much that I would think is not normal. Then again I don't really have a reference. Anyway this is what I did today. I removed the caliper after about an hour of struggling with the two bolts that hold it on. This also leads me to believe that I DIDN'T do the front brakes because I didn't even have a large enough wrench for the bolts (17mm I think.). These things were so tight I had to put a ratchet on them and then use the car jack to push the ratchet handle up. Oh, let me back up and say I ran the car again and really felt like the noise was coming from either the caliper or hub assembly. Ok so I took the caliper off and ran the car again and what do you know, no awful noise. The hub however was turning faster and the noise seems to be more prevalent with slower movement. Then I put the rotor back on and with the car in drive I slowed the spin down using my foot. Still no noise until I threw it in neutral and thought I heard a knock. Put it back in drive and I can just barely hear a constant knock, not so much a pop, but a knock. I also can't really tell how deep it is either. But, the caliper thing really has me confused. Pads are full of life and rotors are smooth with no grooves on either side. Really crazy. Sorry for the long post I'm at the bar ;)

No not crazy, but confusing. See, calipers don't have return springs. After applying the brakes the calipers get opened by the rotor. No rotor is completely round and true. There is always that 1000th mm (or whatever) of thickness variation. So the thickest portion pushes the caliper sides apart. But that only works right when the sliders are friction free. So you need to have a good look at the sliders, remove any corrosion with sand paper, grease them with high temp caliper grease and reassemble them. There is also some anti rattle hardware consisting of a M-shaped spring and maybe some tiny stainless steel shims. New springs and a clean surface for the shims are needed. When you do one side you should do the other as well.