Clunk rattle left front side of car. steering shaft?

[walnut777]

01 Bonneville SE. 112k miles. lady owned until now.
I bought it this past sunday, so far ive only put a little over 100 miles on it.
I have a gravel drive way and its a little rough. Well when driving at low speeds on my driveway I hear a rattle kind of sound from the front left side of car. It will also happen while driving at higher speeds on older roads. Like Belton highway, it has lots of small raised cracks in the road.
I was wondering if this was related to the intermediate steering shaft that is mention in the thread about common problems. (Also, thanks for that article, is summed up just about every problem I am going to fix on my car. i.e. interior light wont go off, water shield on front door , clips that hold spoiler letting water in and now this clunk.)

I jacked the car up this morning and took a look. I couldnt find anything loose. I did not notice that my outer tie rod end boots were busted but no play in them. I have a set of Moog that I am going to replace them with at a later time. I also noticed that I barely had any brake pad left so I pulled the pads and had the rotors turned, slapped on some new pads.

The front drivers side tire has cupping on the inside of the tire. If I remember correctly thats usually from a bad shock. My front tires have more tread than the rear which makes me believe they were rotated. I have to take off now, dinner with the wife for our 7th anniversary. Ill come back and post a little later.

[markwb]

It sounds like the left strut has a worn bearing or bushing. Probably not a bad time to think about replacement of the front struts. The experts will chime in here in short order.

[imidazol97]

Well when driving at low speeds on my driveway I hear a rattle kind of sound from the front left side of car. It will also happen while driving at higher speeds on older roads. Like Belton highway, it has lots of small raised cracks in the road. .

Did you check carefully on both sway bar links? The bolt through the middle of the plastic cover rusts apart.
And take a good look at the bushing for the sway bar. I believe mine has also worn so that the metal bar can tap on the subframe as it twists.
And take good look at the bolts holding the steering rack. Have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while you look at the rack itself.

[walnut777]

Well when driving at low speeds on my driveway I hear a rattle kind of sound from the front left side of car. It will also happen while driving at higher speeds on older roads. Like Belton highway, it has lots of small raised cracks in the road. .

Did you check carefully on both sway bar links? The bolt through the middle of the plastic cover rusts apart.
And take a good look at the bushing for the sway bar. I believe mine has also worn so that the metal bar can tap on the subframe as it twists.
And take good look at the bolts holding the steering rack. Have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while you look at the rack itself.

i will check into that.i have noticed a little "bump" when turning the wheel back and forth while sitting still. while i had the front wheel off i did notice there was some room between the sway bar and the bushing that holds it to the frame. im off work tomorrow so ill check it out

[01bonneSC]

Sounds like the ISS needs lube or replacing along with the sway bar links.

[walnut777]

thanks for all the helpful info. i have some sway bar links, im not gonna put them on until i get my sway bar bushings. replace them all at once and then drive it, whether the sway bar links fix my problem or not im gonna grease the ISS. I just want to know for sure what caused the issue. Ill post back once I do this. It may be a week before I get to it. I have to remove the fuel pump from my wifes van on my next day off. its leaking gas. im assuming the rubber seal didnt seat correctly when i put the new fuel pump in a few weeks ago.