Jub

So I've been experiencing a slight "shuttering" when turning hard to the right with the left side of the car loaded up. It is hard to describe, makes very little noise, but just feels like the car is shuttering a bit. I'm trying to determine if it's front/rear and if what I'm feeling is through the wheel or chassis of the car. I bought the car in June of last year and I think it has been happening since I've been autocrossing it. I'm on 245/255 RE71's with a karcepts front bar. At first, I thought it was just me feeling a bit of understeer and the tires working under the front end. I cannot repeat the feeling on public roads or under any normal circumstance. It only happens under hard loaded right hand turns pushing 8/10's or more. When I bought the car, I did have the rear axle click and promptly did the axle nut TSB which made that go away. I've been under the car many times, tightened up everything, shook everything around, inspected bushings/shocks/etc and am kinda at a loss here.

I'm hoping someone may have experienced something similar and figured out what it was. I'm thinking it may be rear wheel bearings or potentially axle cups though I don't have the normal symptoms of the axle cups. I need to test a bit more to see if acceleration greatly affects it. I think it has an impact in making the feeling more prominent but it is hard to say at this point. Anyone experience something similar and find it was rear wheel bearings? I don't want to throw parts at it but I'd like to figure it out.

spdracerut

For me, it was the front lower control arm bushings going out. As it got progressively worse, it would make a click noise going over sharp impacts. When it got really bad, in a long curving highway on-ramp, I could feel the shudder through the steering wheel and the car wouldn't track cleanly through a corner.

Jub

Interesting and not necessarily what I expected. I've had a slight click in the front when going over certain bumps in the road ever since I installed the front sway bar. I've driven myself nuts jacking the car up and tightening everything at least 20 times and I still have it. Maybe the swaybar is not the root cause after all. Perhaps the bushing is the root of both my issues. Odd part is that my car tracks very straight and aside from the issue poorly described before, it does not have any odd behavior. I can floor it in second gear with my hands off the wheel and brake hard afterwards and it stays perfectly straight. My compliance bushings don't look perfect but I didn't think they looked that bad either. I'll have to check it out. Any other symptoms aside from what you have described?

What is the approximate age/mileage people are finding with bad bushings? My car is an 06 with 93k on it. I'm partially surprised that they'd be torn but I guess not that surprised at the same time.

yourboysoap

I've been getting a similar noise on my car in the rear and always thought it was related to the axle nut issue and potential wheel bearing play, but upon inspection I didn't notice any excessive play. This only really happens going over bumps where the frame is twisting (going over my driveway curb one wheel at a time) and I wonder if this is also control arm bushings now. I will need to check on that!

twohoos

Sounds like very early symptoms of the inner CV cups. Most people aren't sensitive enough to notice it as early as you have.

Jub

I really don't think my issue is my front control arms. I've jacked it up, looked around, shook, pried and nothing seems to be loose. I also disconnected my swaybar and removed the arms to verify my clicking noise. Removing the swaybar from the equation made clicking noise I hear going over small bumps go away entirely and isolates it to the end links. I may have an alignment done next week and they should tell me if the bushings are too jacked up.

My car has not been lowered but my understanding of the CV issue is that the inner cups pit and most people experience the vibration after lowering the car and moving the tri-pods outside of the pitted area. That being said, my inner CV's may likely be pitted and theorizing that the inner CV is traveling a good amount as the driver corner is loaded, suspension traveling, and car accelerating maybe that is what I am experiencing. I can feel a ton of rear body roll, lots more noticeable than my old AP1, which would effectively lower the car 1 + inch while hard cornering and transitioning to WOT. Plausible?

Edit - After reading the DIY axle cup thread, I'm pretty convinced that twohoos is right and I'm in the early stages of pitting. I was under the impression that axle pitting was only an issue for lowered cars. Now I gotta find a garage to play around with it... I'm assuming that autocross launches probably aren't good for pitting. Thank you twohoos!

Is buying the axle spacers a viable fix here? Again, it's something I thought was really only for lowered cars.

twohoos

Pitting will happen eventually to any car that's driven hard, lowered or not.

Spacers can potentially alleviate the symptoms by shifting the spider bearings to a different part of the cup. But even then, it'll just be a matter of time till it happens again - the real culprit is the grease. These cups are extremely high quality (*don't* buy cheap aftermarket ones), they just need a hi-performance grease. And since you need to remove the cups to change the grease, you may as well swap them side to side.

My DIY thread shows me using some generic cheapo grease, but remember I was in a bind that day. A few weeks later I repacked the cups with Redline grease, and (knock wood) I haven't had any issues since. That's about 14 years (!) and a couple thousand additional track miles.