My Chevrolet Lumina (149k) is due for transmission service about a month now. Tonight I heard a grating, tearing up noise as I turned left pulling out of parallel parking, then began a whine on accelerating. The whine is distinctive. The car made same turning noise later tonight as I parallel parked at home, and made an awful groan when I turned left - not the usual steering groan. The turning ocurred under heavy breaking.
Can anyone give me their best guess what’s going on? I have had a steering noise after a hose or link replacement from time to time. I also have a bearing problem that’s not effecting driveability yet.
Something strange happened last week - the seat belt warning light came on and I noticed my car had great power, less engine noise, and drove like a new car, as opposed to when the light is off. This has happened periodically since a week ago. I don’t wear a seat belt (neck problem), but seat belt light never came on in the past.
If there’s a Ph.D car expert out there, I am in need of help, am scared to death as I have very low income and no way to fix a transmission. If only I could buy a new car for $50 dollar a month payments.
sounds like one of two things:
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rack-and-pinion steering
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CV axle u-joint (all one piece)
pray that it is the CV axle. cv axle is cheaper than rack-and-pinion.
reading your post again i am wondering about the brakes or even a bearing as you mentioned.
my gut is really leaning towards CV axle. it’ll make a lot of noise before it affects driveability.
good luck. someone else will respond as well and we’ll see how they feel.
JP#3
Thanks so much. I need to change the Title. It appears to say the car whines and makes noise as it turns. The whining seems to occur on acceleration. I’ll change title.
It turned out to be a power steering hose replacement needed