front end... click click click + other stuff

[johnjcoyle]

hello all,

So here is the up date on my 96 se7.

I bought the landy just over 1 year ago, The dealer I bought it from (not an LR dealer) told me that the fron end needed alignment when I bought it, so I negotiated a cheaper price and said I would do the alignment myself.

Stupid.

Since then the first thing that went wrong was the front right caliper siezed on, the bill from LR was just over 1700 dollars canadian, for this they replaced the front rotors both siddes, with new pads, and installed a new caliper.

At the same time they replaced the front left wheel bearings.

Since then I have just finished replacing the complete front track rod ends and steering damper, feels real good now, and I have an appointment on friday for a full alignment job. great,

One thing I did notice before doing my track rod ends was a click click click click noise from the front left wheel when on full lock left or right when turning, I thought this was the track rod ends, they were really bad the old ones, the car wandered all over the road.

I am beginning to believe that it could be the wheel bearing ? even though the bearing was replaced by the LR dealership just over 1 year ago.

does anyone or has anyone ever heard the same sort of noise ? have you got a remedy ? any suggestions will be gratefully recieved..........because the dealership warranty is only for 1 year;;; hummmmmmmm..

PS. Now I am real mad, my lug nuts on the wheels wont fit the wrench, any suggestions ?

also, replacing the flex disc does work, it gets rid of a load of vibrations, but I think it will need to have the prop shaft balanced because I still have some vibrations there, anyone had this done before ? any suggestions on this one ?

I am either numb from the cold when lying under my Disco all the time or I am getting so used to not having it run properly, I am not sure which is true anymore, but I want to get it fixed;

John.

[Badger1]

If the clicking your hearing is when your driving and turning(like making a U-turn) then it could be a bad CV joint. As for your prop/drive shaft vibes, how old are your U-joints? They may also need replacing. There are grease nipples on the U-joints/prop/drive shafts that need regular greasing to prevent them from premature failure. Maybe the original owner never serviced them.

[OkieRover]

Grease up the drive train and add some swivel housing lube as well.
If your CV joints are failing you can look at my page. The concept is the same and it will give you an idea of the project at hand.
www.okierover.com/cv-joints.htm

[Al's Discovery]

Mate.. I have had a couple of issues with this. The most obvious one is as the other two guys mentioned, the CV joints. Test this by wacking the truck into reverse and backing up at full lock ( doesn't need to be fast at all ). The CV's will make a loud clicking noise in time with wheel rotation. Also worth having a look at the state of the rubber boots protecting the CV joints. You may well find a split in the boots that has allowed foreign material in and has prematurely wear the jont.

If this checks out negative, I recently put new brake pads on the front and ended up with a simliar ( but softer noise) coming from the same area. Above checks failed and I was starting to wonder about more serious bearing / hub issues when I noticed that applying the brakes stopped the noise. Further investigation didn't really yield anything but the noise dissappeared afetr about 100klms and hasn't returned.

Best of luck

[bluemax09]

I just went through the lug nut issue. They are 27mm or 1 1/4 inch. I was having trouble getting to them and getting them off after a the guy at the shop stripped the lug nut cap so what I did was remove the stainless steel lug caps with a pair of vice grips (be patient and persistent). Some of them I had to break through with a screwdriver and hammer and basically pry them off but it can be done. You have to practically cut through the cap by prying a screwdriver in there and lifting and prying until you can break the lip that is seated just behind the lug but next to the rim itself. After you remove the lug cap, which is for asthetic purposes mostly, then that takes the size down to a 26mm which fits perfect. You should be able to get those lugs off pretty easy. I think the whole process took me about 2 hours to get them all off.

[bluemax09]

Clicking is probably a CV Joint as the others have described.

[johnjcoyle]

Yep, I think you are all right, I suspect a cv joint, I will be checking / refreshing/ renewing all the fluids and grease soon so I will do a full investigation then;

Many thanks to all for the input;

I'll give an update as soon as I have got the courage to go out there.

[Capt. Ron]

can I add another vote for CV

[OkieRover]

Now it has value.