I just got a new car three weeks ago and I’m trying to sell my 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix GT myself. Since buying this new car, I haven’t driven the Pontiac for 3 weeks. I started it tonight and it started just fine but when I started driving, I heard a clunking noise coming from the front end. I checked the wheels and didn’t see anything (though I didn’t check too thoroughly). It’s definitely the front end. The car has about 158,000 miles on it and before I stopped driving it, it had no issues and did not have this clunking sound. I tried leaving the car running for 5 minutes at a time and then turning it off and then on again thinking it might be that I’ve just left it sit there but that didn’t work. Help!
Sidenote, I had my wheel bearings replaced about 6 months ago.
If the car is still registered, take it for a 30 mile drive and make sure you have to use the brakes along the way. I suspect you have rust on the rotors and a few stops should clear off the rust and things should be normal. Otherwise the drive will warm up the drive train and perhaps get a joint that has “frozen” to loosen up.
I think I had a problem like that many years ago and it was just a temporary flat spot on one of the tires. Don’t know if the better quality tires of today are prone to developing a flat spot from sitting too long.
I live in Colorado and it sat through the rain storm we had recently.
Have the CV joints checked…Was the car flooded?
The car was not flooded. I have not checked the CV joints since the rain so I will be driving it and checking those today.
Good news! I drove it for a while and it seems to be driving fine now. Did a lot of hard braking hoping to wear off rust and that seemed to do the trick! Thanks for all the ideas!