2016 Chevy Traverse, 107k. Intermittent popping/grinding sound when I turn the steering wheel. Not everytime. I took it in to my shop today and they said the power steering and suspension all looks fine (I don’t know specifically what they looked at but this shop has always been competent in the past). Any ideas?
The outer CV joint on one of the axles may be starting to fail.
Tester
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Could also be a strut bushing\bearing.
There’s just a light spot of what could be grease on the bottom of one of the outer CV joints. Does that sound like it?
There shouldn’t be any visible grease at the bottom of the joints, so that would seem to indicate a broken boot on the joint. Once the boot breaks, in addition to grease leaking out, road grit and salt can contaminate the CV joint, and once that happens joint failure is inevitable.
In the future, make sure that your mechanic does a visual inspection of those boots when he is under the vehicle to do an oil change. Finding a cracked CV boot sooner is preferable to finding it later.
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Sounds like @Tester got it right again.
We had something very similar happening on our 2012 Honda Odyssey. It was the CV joints.
$600 or so later… the noise is completely gone.
I’m taking it into a different shop tomorrow. If I replace one CV joint, should I replace the other?
A worn CV joint won’t make noise simply by turning the steering wheel, the vehicle must be moving and there must be a load on the joint.