About a year and half ago I purchased a 2003 Honda Element and while it’s a good car it has one noticeable issue. Whenever I’m driving between 50-70 mph there is a very noticeable vibrating sound throughout the car. More specifically the sound and vibrating seems to come from the the front and rear wheels. Also when I go over bumps or potholes there are prominent clunks up front as well. Would this have to do with my tire rods, CV boots or even struts? Any ideas?
Sincerely,
Jordan
Clunks up front could be worn sway bar bushings or struts.
Probably it needs new struts anyway because it’s a 2003 and people tend not to replace struts when they should because the ride quality degrades so gradually that they don’t notice. You’re probably riding around on the original factory struts.
Vibrating sound is more difficult to guess at…you might check some Honda forums and see if there’s a common vibration problem with the Element that other Element owners know about. It’s possible that the tires you have are just plain noisy, since you say the sound seems to come from the wheels. Some tires do get noisy as they wear out.
How old are the tires? If they are original, they need to go. I would have someone check out the front end suspension. It could be ball joints, sway bar, strut upper support bearing…