I found a steal of a car for my son, a 2003 Monte Carlo SS. The car had been hit slightly in the LF corner. The car needed front brakes, so I bought a package off Ebay that had rotors, pads, and wheel hubs. I replaced the LF wheel hub when we did the brakes and kept one for a spare since the RF felt good. Shortly after replacing these parts, the car started to make a popping sound when you would turn right. The popping sound is much like an exhaust pipe dragging on the ground. We checked to make sure the was no contact with moving parts. After reading several forums, we decided to replace the LF hub with the spare we had. This did not fix the situation, so we put the first replacement LF hub onto the RF. Still no fix.
After this we decided to take the car to a empty parking lot and drove in circles trying to find the source of the noise. We discovered that the noise would go away if the car was put into neutral. We were still unable to locate the source of the noise.
So I decided to jack the car up and put it in gear and turn right. The noise did not occur with no load on the tires. However the u-joints on the axles were making some excessive noise, so I put in a new set of axles. Again this did not fix the noise. Now thinking the source must be in the differential.
Well two days after putting in new axles, the transmission went out. This will surely fix it, right? Well the mechanic that fixed the transmission said the pump had gone out, and it appeared the differential was creating shavings that caused this situation. GREAT WE FOUND THE SOURCE. Not so much!
Car still makes noise while turning right after replacing the transmission.
Does anyone have any ideas? I have driven myself crazy trying to find the source of this noise including riding in the engine compartment while my father drove in circles in the local high school parking lot.