Front End Popping About To Drive Me Crazy

brandon_guzzo · August 30, 2010

Funny that this was mention my truck has just started doing that but then again its a gmt 800 and i have had it in the shop for 3 days now. They replaced tie rods, calipers, ball joints and Control arms and im getting tired of spending money because after all that its still doing it. Truck has 105,000km on it.

jblakeney · August 30, 2010

Funny that this was mention my truck has just started doing that but then again its a gmt 800 and i have had it in the shop for 3 days now. They replaced tie rods, calipers, ball joints and Control arms and im getting tired of spending money because after all that its still doing it. Truck has 105,000km on it.

Try the intermediate steering shaft.... Known problem with GMT-800's........ A couple years ago, I changed everything out from under the front end of my 99... less the rack and pinion and the coil springs. Only to still have my same noise.... I couple weeks later it dawned on me.... This was the same noise I was having right after I bought the truck and they had replaced the intermediate shaft and it quit..... So I got a new one put it in and my noise was gone.....

Lesson learned. I spent 1200 bucks on the suspension front and rear..... Then 90 bucks on a new shaft, which fixed my rattle I was having in the first placed (why I changed all that stuff out).

Jbo

brandon_guzzo · August 30, 2010

DUHHi guess i should mention that to my mechanic. Thanks allot i never even though of that

DRP06 · September 3, 2010

I solved the popping sound on a 2007 old style Silverado by trimming the inner plastic fenders. The fenders would grab when the truck flexed during a sharp turn.

This fix took all day to figure out. I was drinking beer and driving the truck in and out of the driveway. My neighbors must have thought i was a drunken idiot.

jzone71 · September 3, 2010

I had the same prob. and last night I took the body mount bolt out and jacked up the body to get to the top part of the rubber mount and sprayed the hell out of it with white lith. grease and that fixed the problem.By the way I just had it at the dealer on mon. and they could not find the noise,so I had to fix it myself

DanJS10 · September 7, 2010

I had a 2004 ECSB Silverado with the same noise. The initial fix was outlined is the TSB as possibly making the problem worse. They elongated the bolt holes on the bolt in crossmember and removed the rubberized undercoating in the places where it made contact with the frame. That fixed the slow speed pop. The Intermediate steering shaft was also a problem and was fixed without hassle.

wierdo124 · September 7, 2010

In my experience GM factory ball joints will either last like 200k miles, or they won't make it to 50.

rebelman06 · September 7, 2010

I had a 2004 ECSB Silverado with the same noise. The initial fix was outlined is the TSB as possibly making the problem worse. They elongated the bolt holes on the bolt in crossmember and removed the rubberized undercoating in the places where it made contact with the frame. That fixed the slow speed pop. The Intermediate steering shaft was also a problem and was fixed without hassle.

The updated TSB says not to slot the holes and says to remove the undercoating around the holes and installing 8 big washers. I tried to recommend this fix ealier. It cost me about $16 and 45 minutes to do myself. My truck sounded like a POS in parking lots before I fixed this.

Edited September 7, 2010 by rebelman06

jblakeney · September 8, 2010

In my experience GM factory ball joints will either last like 200k miles, or they won't make it to 50.

My 1995 Blazer had 250k on it.... They'd never been changed....... I greased them every 3k... and washed them out every 6k and re-greased. My 99 made it till 07 (i think i forget but it was over 150k, they were not my problem, i forgot the intermediate shafts would make racket, changed everything in the front end then remembered it).

Jbo

poschevy · September 20, 2010

This is the problem I am having....."popping-type noise coming from the front of the vehicle. This condition is most apparent during hard left or right turns at low speeds. Going over bumps while turning may also aid in producing this noise."

I can feel it in the floor board and as far as I could tell it was the driver side only. after many more miles popping started getting worse(more frequent) but I was not able to feel it in the floorboard all the time anymore. just shy of 80,000 miles I replaced the lower ball joint, upper control arm/ball joint, and the outer tie rod end(all driver side).....the popping got better, seemed to go back to what it was about 40,000 miles earlier, just the single pop when making a slow sharp turn and the suspension is loaded or unloaded and the pop can be felt in the floor board. Since that didn't fix the problem I did some online searching and found the TSB to install the washers on the crossmemeber so I stopped by Chevy and picked up eight.

When I replaced the driver side ball joints I was able to spin the ball joints with my fingers so I figured the passenger side ones were worn too so they would need replacement and I could do it when I try installing the hardened washers....well I scraped off the undercoating and installed the washers and I am not certain but I think it is also poping on the passenger side now, definetly DID NOT fix the driver side popping. I am going to try the body mount insulator TSB and see if that fixes it....if I find the issue, I will post my fix.

Sidenote: IMHO, if the frame flexes and moves inside the crossmember untill the bolt makes contact, "popping" from one extent to the other, slotting the member is moronic...even if it did make the noise stop it will reduce stiffness...and I still cannot figure out how washers would help either?!?!?

poschevy · September 28, 2010

This is the problem I am having....."popping-type noise coming from the front of the vehicle. This condition is most apparent during hard left or right turns at low speeds. Going over bumps while turning may also aid in producing this noise."

I can feel it in the floor board and as far as I could tell it was the driver side only.............

I am going to try the body mount insulator TSB and see if that fixes it....if I find the issue, I will post my fix.

I added body mount insulator, GM part #15899719, between the bottom of the upper body mount and the frame like TSB says...PRAISE THE LORD!!!! The popping has stopped, going on three days and haven't heard or felt it....

now, if I can only locate the rattle behind the dash....aarrrgghhhhhh!

ps, clean mating surfaces like TSB also states.....

rdalley · September 28, 2010

Do you have the TSB # for the body mount insulator fix?

DDGTAO · October 12, 2010

My 2004 has started making this noise this summer. I have done the spacer trick and it has not fixed the problem. I tooked it to a local shop and they had two guys test drive and look everything over and they think it is one of the coil springs shifting. Drives me nuts and it would be nice to find a solution someday.

Any one with 4wd trucks having this problem or is it limited to 2wd?

After four I shaft replacements, the spacer job on the cross member and a ball joint replacement I still had this problem. The dealer then kept my truck for three days of "Testing and Evaluation". During this time they dropped the entire front end of the truck and started replacing parts. The noise was still there... until they tightened the exhaust flanges. No more noise and as of this moment problem has not been present for six months.

aucivileng · February 7, 2011

My 03 Sierra has had a bad popping noise in it for several thousand miles now. It is very loud and I can feel it in the floorboard under my feet. I have taken it to a couple of mechanics and no one can solve the problem. I took it to a tire shop and they discovered that the bolts that connect the control arms to the frame were loose. They tightened them up but it didn't take long before it was back at it again. I did it myself the next time and it held for a little while but has since returned. I am thinking about replacing the control arm bushings as something is not allowing the bolts to stay tight. Has anyone else replaced these or had the exact same problem?

I was also having the bumping sound in the I-shaft so I replaced it but the replacement seems to have a little slack in it? Has anyone else had this problem with an aftermarket I-shaft of have I done something wrong?

Thanks!

AustinZ71 · February 7, 2011

There have been quite a few members posting about this 'popping' noise lately.... im interested to see where thiis goes..

Can you feel it in the steering wheel at all or is it just audible and nothing can actually be felt?

you can't feel anything, only a slight, quick single pop sound when the suspension loads in a slight, soft, slow speed turn

it is equal on both sides

My truck has 2K miles on it and I was making a slight turn today and started to accelerate just a little and heard a POP pretty loud. I thought WTF but had to get to work so I could not investigate it further.