CV joint knackered?

shauncr91 · 10 Oct 2015 at 17:36

Hi,

A couple of weeks ago my Fiesta ST started making a screeching noise when turning at low speed however it gradually went away but was shortly after replaced by a knocking noise from the NS when wiggling the steering wheel or going over light imperfections in the road surface.

I originally thought it could be a ball joint but I had these replaced at the same time as fitting my Powerflex bushes earlier this year so seems unlikely to have failed so I'm leaning more toward CV joint...can anyone think of anything else it could potentially be?

Thanks :cool:

Dogbreath · 10 Oct 2015 at 18:58

A screeching noise when turning is usually caused by a loose auxiliary belt slipping when the power steering pump is loaded.

Knocking noises over bumps are most often caused by worn anti-roll bar drop links. Very unlikely to be a CV, these usually start clicking at full lock when worn.

jumpy · 10 Oct 2015 at 19:03

You can usually tell a borked CV joint by turning the wheel on full lock and driving slowly forwards and backwards. You should hear a clicking sound.

Have you looked into a failed wheel bearing? Could be that the bearing has play that misaligns the disk causing the screeching at low speed. Rock the wheel at 12-6 o'clock if you hear/feel a slight clunk/knock the the bearing probably has play (though not all bad bearings exhibit this).

Check your power steering system too. Rock the steering wheel from side to side and have someone look at all of your steeling linkages. play should be obvious. Low fluid levels also make noise on full lock.

shauncr91 · 10 Oct 2015 at 19:10

Drop links are less than 6 months old, I've checked them for play and they seem fine, ARB was also polybushed recently so I doubt it's that which is knocking.

PAS system has also had a new pump and fresh fluid recently which I check the levels on regularly and they don't drop.

Clarkey · 10 Oct 2015 at 19:24

Had similar on my e36, it was the bottom ball joint. As it happens that was a recently replaced MeyleHD unit, which goes to show just because your parts are relatively new doesn't mean they aren't going to fail.

shauncr91 · 10 Oct 2015 at 20:13

Clarkey said:
Had similar on my e36, it was the bottom ball joint. As it happens that was a recently replaced MeyleHD unit, which goes to show just because your parts are relatively new doesn't mean they aren't going to fail.

That gives me a bit of hope, I'm hoping it's the ball joint because it's an easy fix since the old rivets are already drilled out now...is there any sure way of testing the ball joint for play?

andy_mk3 · 10 Oct 2015 at 23:40

shauncr91 said:
That gives me a bit of hope, I'm hoping it's the ball joint because it's an easy fix since the old rivets are already drilled out now...is there any sure way of testing the ball joint for play?

Jack that corner up and check for any movement while rocking the wheel side to side and up and down. You might need to get another person to do it while you look under at the ball joint if there is any movement.

Dogbreath · 11 Oct 2015 at 00:36

shauncr91 said:
PAS system has also had a new pump and fresh fluid recently which I check the levels on regularly and they don't drop.

Did you fit a new aux belt and is it correctly tensioned?

Lower ball joint could cerntaily be causing knocking noises over bumps, but will have nothing to do with any screeching noises.

Scania · 11 Oct 2015 at 00:41

Clarkey said:
Had similar on my e36, it was the bottom ball joint. As it happens that was a recently replaced MeyleHD unit, which goes to show just because your parts are relatively new doesn't mean they aren't going to fail.

Not the quality products they used to be from what I've read (moved manufacturing from Germany to Turkey afaik) but yes, I've known plenty of OEM parts - be it cars or commercials - failing over the years, people often incorrectly assume the reverse of what you say mate!

shauncr91 · 14 Oct 2015 at 21:05

Had this fixed today and it turned out the NS ball joint had pretty much entirely failed and the drivers side had play in it too. Both of these were the cheap options from Euro Car Parts and failed after just ~6k miles and 1 track day so have both been replaced with premium items...buy cheap buy twice showing it's worth here

Dogbreath · 14 Oct 2015 at 22:29

shauncr91 said:
Had this fixed today and it turned out the NS ball joint had pretty much entirely failed and the drivers side had play in it too. Both of these were the cheap options from Euro Car Parts and failed after just ~6k miles and 1 track day so have both been replaced with premium items...buy cheap buy twice showing it's worth here

ECPs budget offerings are as bad as the cheapest crap you can buy on eBay IME. Plenty of their cheap sensors (e.g. MAF) fail to work stright out of the box.