Is my steering rod going to snap?

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

It is starting to happen on the slights turn of the steering wheel. There is a clunking noise when turning the wheel both left and right. What is it? what will it cost? should I stop driving the car till I can get it fixed?



Thanks

katie

2

Do you mean one clunk or a steady clunking while turning? Could be a CV joint or a ball joint. Have it looked at as soon as you can as you don’t want anything down there to actually fail. I wouldn’t be scared to drive the car, but again, have it looked at asap.

3

steady clunking while turning. Even backing up and turning the wheel will get the noise.

thanks

4

Starting when the Malibu was “new” (in 1997) GM has put out a TSB dealing with “clunks” from the front end. The fix is new lower control arms or a new steering rack. What year is our Malibu?

5

2004

6

There are numerous TSB’s dealing with clunks in the front end. One deals with only cars in Mexico (can we rule this out?) The others, one is for replacement of the electric steering Yikes! 06-02-32-007 and the other 2 revisions deal with lubricating the intermediate shaft (at a fraction of the cost of the first) 06-02-32-007D