I was driving on the motorway today and all of a sudden my steering wheel began vibrating a lot, which i know isnt good. i came off the motorway and was nearly home when my handling went a bit funny- i thought i may have a puncture or something so i pulled over and whilst turning right there was a strange "clink clink clink" sound coming from the engine area. it seemed ok on left turns though. i made it home and had a quick look but couldnt see anything obvious- has anyone got any ideas about what it could be? ill probably take it to a garage tomorrow and get them to have a looky. its been sat still for a few days so could this have something to do with it? i have a 1989 mkII Golf CL 1.6, and has done about 90k if that helps.. thanks
The 'clack clack clack' that you get only when turning either left or right on near full lock is a classic symptom of a dead outer CV joint. So that's what I'd put my money on. My 8V GTI had this whenever I did a tight U-turn whilst parking etc. It did not affect how the car drove otherwise, though. I suppose it depends on how badly the joint has failed. If I am right and you can't tell which side has the knackered outer CV joint, then get someone to stand near your car while you do some left and right hand turns on full lock. Hope you get it sorted. Another thing that I have had recently which suddenly caused the car to feel like it had a flat tyre at the front was a binding front calliper. That caused horrible steering wheel wobble, and the smell of burning from a very hot wheel(!). The clack-clack-clack suggests a CV joint with your car though. Edited by: Trev16v
is it ok to drive for a while on a crappy cv joint? ive gotta get back to portsmouth tonight (its only about 15 miles) but i dont want my wheel coming off on the motorway! also, would it be easy to fix myself? i have little experience in this sort of stuff but am willing to learn (with the help of an old-school haynes manual which i found in a scrappy!)
Yeah, take it easy untill you get it sorted... It's something you can do with a haynes. Just make sure you have a torque wrench and a mallet. Brunty
I doubt its the CV joint as it wouldn't normally cause vibration in a straight line and would occur over a long (ish) period of time, not suddenly as you describe. Jack it up and have a good look under there, if you dont know what your doing get someone who does to have a look.
I left my car out of the garage for 2 nights last week, dirving to work I thought I had a shafted front wheel bearing, checked the bolts and they were loose exept the lockers.... Coinsidence, I don`t think so
