djm579

Hi this is my first post here, and I'm curious if anyone might be able to offer me some advice. I bought a 1998 Grand Cherokee a couple weeks ago that had a broken sway bar end links. There was a loud clunking noise coming from under the hood on the driver side, which I thought was all due to the sway bar. I replaced the end links, but the noise diminished quite a bit. However, the noise is still there, just not as bad.

The noise definitely comes from the driver side of the car. When I take a right hand turn, the noise get much louder. If I make a left hand turn, there is no noise. Also, when I get to cruising speed (45-55 mph) the noise seems to disappear. The noise is a metallic sound that sounds like some sort of metal rubbing on grinding.

When I bought the car, the left front tire had 16 PSI. I filled it up to 36, as recommended. I do not know how long the car was being driven with that little air in it, but I wonder if that could have caused some sort of damage to the front-left wheel.

If anyone has any idea as to what this could be or maybe some advice on how to trouble shoot it, I greatly appreciate it!

dave1123

Welcome to CF!

Look at the rubber bushings where the stabilizer bar mounts to the frame. They're probably shot.

djm579

Thanks for your reply Dave. Glad to see there are some other upstate NYers on here. I forgot to mention, I replace those too. Still cant pinpoint this clunking/grinding noise.

dave1123

Check your front wheel bearing hubs. If they get bad enough, the rotor will rub on the pads or backing plate/dust shield. I had a rock kick up and bend the edge of one of my rear backing plates and it made a terrible grinding noise.