Freeway home, freeway back to work, heading to back into my parking spot. All the rest is at about 2 mph. Steering wheel left to the stop to loop around. Reverse Steering wheel right to the stop or pretty close anyway. back up about 5 feet (with 10 more to go) ...and there is this "crunch" accompanied by a shudder/bump... Sounded like it came from under the front Sounded (and felt) like it would if you backed over something like a wooden cigarbox (the cheap kind). So I inched back a bit further and nothing. Continued on back into my spot, straightened up the wheels and looked. I expected to see my front facia hanging off or something. Nothing. I looked from the front, I looked from just behind both front wheels. Nothing. What happened? Any ideas? I haven't run over anything (for 2 years now). Haven't ever hooked the front facia and only lightly scraped it 3 or 4 times (also over a year ago). No. I have never experienced the "thump" when backing up with the wheel cranked over. I suppose that's a possibility but we have VERY roughly textured concrete in the parking garage (like if you fell down, even slowly, you'd be bleeding) and I've been making this maneuvre into the same spot for over a year.
Maybe some debris got lodged some place uncomfortable? Like a pebble or something. I'd be looking for leaks later.
Or it could be the beginning of the dreaded front end clunk. Something I'm dreading myself, considering how often I was driving to San Francisco for a while there, plus all the road trips and track time.
Sounds like the old F1 stick-slip that used to happen in the cold. I used to only get it in reverse with the wheel cranked hard.
That came to mind but there was this very distinct "crunch" sound. Naturally I wasn't listening for it but it was loud enough and the first thought I had was that I had run over/crushed some medium sized plastic/dense styrofoam object. Like maybe the size of a small lunch box. or maybe what you'd expect backing over the first board of a wooden pallet. It was very unsettling to find absolutely nothing on the ground or hanging down under the car. I think I'll stay off the freeway on the way home.
I have isolated the problem! (Good news and bad news.) First a diagnostic quiz: I changed my mind and definitely drove home via the freeway. You should be able to deduce the problem (scroll down). The friggin fans are toast. I go out to the car to check it again before going home (A/C was on when I parked it). Fire it up to crank over the wheels and look underneath again and pop the hood. Lift the hood and start looking in/under the wheel wells. After just a bit this racket starts in the engine bay. Sounds a lot like a bad (idler) pulley bearing or alternator bearing or that sort of noise. It's coming more from the passenger side. Can't see much cause it's dark in the parking garage so I go to get the flash light out of the glove box. It quits! Instant relief, it's not a pulley or bearing. Then I start thinking it shouldn't have just quit... so I figure maybe it's the A/C compressor or A/C clutch. Tried cycling that and it didn't make a difference. It starts again. It's the passenger side fan kicking on. Temp gets up around 203 and the driver's side fan never did turn on. I think my low speed fan has been toast for a long time and now the high speed fan just bit the dust or it's the dreaded gasket/shroud thing. It's cooling off a bit in the driveway right now before I reach around in there to see if I can pull out any sort of obstruction. I drove home on the freeway and the temps came down then on the couple of miles from the freeway to the house it sort of climbed steadily. Hit 230 when I parked in the driveway. Either the highspeed is completely toast or whatever is blocking it has it jammed completely. Just peachy... it's supposed to get well into the 90's tomorrow.
Well, at least fans are an easy and pretty cheap replacement. Didn´t Chris (Legmaker) find them at about 100 dollars? Fredrik
Get one of those car fans that plugs into your cigarette lighter and fab it up to your front bumper it apparently works for early model oldsmobiles around here.
I got the extended warranty. I already dropped my flashlight in there last night and had to remove the belly pan to get it out. I ain't doing it.
It was one of those deteriorating situations that effected the whole family... I get home and want to fool with it to see if it's just an obstruction that I can pull out (the shroud/seal failure thing). Pop the hood to let it cool a bit. Kids want me to make tacos (they can do that, they just aren't very good at it). I get that going and go out to dink with the car since I'm running out of light. Kids are whining for me to fill their taco shells. I do that. They could of waited. I'm not happy. I head back out with a flashlight this time. Drop flashlight (actually I was holding it in it's belt case and it slipped out of the case). It's right there in plain sight at the bottom. I can't reach it 'cause my arm is too big to fit between the engine and the fans. My claw grabber that works wonderfully on nuts, bolts, and wrenches won't open far enough to grab the flashlight. I root around for about 15 minutes looking for that super magnet on the telescoping pen I picked up in the bargain bin at OSH. Can't find it. Kid: what are you looking for? Me: my telescoping magnet Kid: I got one of those! it's in my drawer... (funny, it looks JUST like the one I have/had) Friggin flashlight is made out of aluminum. Great, I'm less happy than I was before. ...The kid has small arms. "Get out here and help me" "But I'm still eating and I'm watching my TV show and I can't quit WOW because we're not out of the dungeon yet" (TV off, now none of the kids are happy) "whatever you do don't drop it"... . . "but you can still see the light. look way over here in this corner" Everybody gets a lot less happy.
A front-end suspension noise, relating to the tension or tie rods. Issue has popped up a lot over on lxf, I think maybe here too.
Basically that's when you get on a little washboard at city speeds and it makes a "clunk" instead of a "biff" when your front wheels hit the bumps.
