Popping noise persists after suspension work, not sure where to look now. (SOLVED) (13 Viewers)

[Artie]

I posted about this a couple months ago while on a big road trip and the Mud community came in clutch helping me out with repair solutions while on the road. I still had some popping occasionally and decided to have some further repairs done. Here is the most recent timeline and where I’m at now.

The LCA’s are new OEM and were replaced on the trip. Once home I scheduled to have total chaos cam tab gussets installed, replaced all the eccentrics. LCA’s should be good to go.

All four corners shocks replaced.

Upper ball joints replaced.

Skid plates are still off the truck.

I had not had the noise while doing the break in image for my new gears. Today was my first real drive after the initial 500 miles and the pop is still there. It is very hard to reproduce and it takes sudden jerking back and forth on the steering wheel and this still doesn’t reproduce it predictably. I heard it a couple times on bridge transitions at highway speeds and taking a big sweeping left turn to cross over interstate at an intersection. I’ve been down a few posts and can’t seem to find anything concrete leading me to believe I’ve found the issue. This thread from @linuxgod has been on my mind because of the LCA issue… I read through it while dealing with my own LCA drama and the body mount is a possibility.

I’m about to throw on some chassis ears on the UCA, front body mounts, tie rod, steering rack bushing, and then go throw the truck around a empty parking lot to see what I can tease out. What else should I consider looking at?

My main concern is am I going to die from this. I’d hate to have some failure at speed while towing with the kids and wife on board. My primary goal is rule that out but I do want to find and fix this as well.

Here is the video of the noise from when it was at its worst while in Moab. It has seemed to get better with the replacement of the LCA’s so this is why I had thought it was related to that. It’s possible it is related to LCA’s and it comes back after alignment after a while.

Any insight is helpful.

 

[linuxgod]

My sound was a definite metallic clank or pop. From the video yours sounds much lower pitch.

Putting some thick fiber washers between the skid plates and the frame seemed to quiet mine, so if you haven’t tried that I’d give that a shot as it’s only a few bucks and only takes as long as it does to get your skids off and back on

 

[ttrmike]

I’ve had clunk sounds similar to the video from worn brake pedal bushings and steering intermediate shaft.

Try moving the brake pedal left and right to see if it replicates the noise.

 

[Artie]

My sound was a definite metallic clank or pop. From the video yours sounds much lower pitch.

Putting some thick fiber washers between the skid plates and the frame seemed to quiet mine, so if you haven’t tried that I’d give that a shot as it’s only a few bucks and only takes as long as it does to get your skids off and back on

I currently have the skids off. I had hoped it was this so I’ve had them off for a while now.

 

[bloc]

Your rig “should” be far too new to worry about body mounts..

I’d also say there is a huge gulf between an unidentified noise and a significant safety issue. If you’ve verified that all suspension/drivetrain bolts are tight and ball joints healthy, I wouldn’t be too worried about safety. I’d still want to get to the bottom of the noise but I’d have no problem putting family in it.

 

[Artie]

I’ve had clunk sounds similar to the video from worn brake pedal bushings and steering intermediate shaft.

Try moving the brake pedal left and right to see if it replicates the noise.

It’s not brake pedal. Noise emanating from passenger footwell.

As for the steering intermediate shaft. What would be a good way to test this theory?

 

[Artie]

Your rig “should” be far too new to worry about body mounts..

I’d also say there is a huge gulf between an unidentified noise and a significant safety issue. If you’ve verified that all suspension/drivetrain bolts are tight and ball joints healthy, I wouldn’t be too worried about safety. I’d still want to get to the bottom of the noise but I’d have no problem putting family in it.

Agree on the “should be too new” comment. I keep falling back on this.

Thanks for setting my mind at ease on safety as well.

Everything is torqued and paint pen marked from my recent shop visit. I’ll go over everything just to be safe but I agree with you, suspension should be ok.

I had the chassis ears on the components mentioned above and I swerved hard left and right and could not replicate the noise. However, it did make it again when I turned into my neighborhood and then again when I ran over some root damaged asphalt. Hopefully, this section of road will cause it to make the noise reliably and I can do more testing. It sounds like it’s coming from the passenger footwell or door pocket. Nothing in either place. I went so far as to take any pieces of gravel I could find in my sliders and looked in nooks and crannies with a bore scope. Nothing obvious.

 

[tbisaacs]

Hope you find it. I’ve got my own clunk and it’s maddening.

 

[Artie]

Hope you find it. I’ve got my own clunk and it’s maddening.

100% makes me crazy.

I’ll keep this thread updated. If this spot in my neighborhood will reproduce it I’m going back to the chassis ears and getting the GoPro out.

 

[Artie]

Popping event this morning. Cruiser has kayaks on the roof and the wife and kids inside, it seems that weight increases popping frequency. We pulled off into a school parking lot and I can make it pop by quick stabs to the throttle from a dead stop. Definitely passenger side but you can feel it at your feet in the foot well. I let my wife so I can film and look. It pops 2 more times then no more. No amount of coaxing will make it pop again.

My observations are that it’s not in the front, definitely near the middle underneath the footwell floor. Something probably attached to the frame which causes the feeling in the floor itself detectable by your feet.

There was only 2 more pops after this. I had to drive down a section of dirt to get to the water and I took the worst way possible, ruts and head bobbing all throughout… no popping. But pop at the top of the hill on the asphalt when I pulled off the gravel.

I will mount my GoPro and get the chassis ear out and see what I can see. I’m thinking it’s caused by chassis flex so pulling the passenger side slider may be my first item removed for further testing. I feel like there should be some visible sign from where the pop originates but I need to take crap off to find that spot.

Thanks for the therapy session, I’ll return for more confessions later.

 

[AcmeSys]

sway bar pillow blocks and end links can show up as a thump/pop. check for play with a pry bar and spray the bushings with dry lube to see if they are binding

 

[Artie]

Reluctant, and possibly too embarrassed, to call victory yet but I may have a contender for the noise source.

I found this stone wedged between the body and frame right at the body mount which is under the passenger foot well. It was wedged in there really well but forcing movement did sound a little familiar. It’s been in there a while and there is visible signs or wear on the frame and body. I drove around stabbing the throttle while the wheel was turned, this seemed to illicit the offending noise the best…. Sweet, sweet silence.

I’ve rolled all over, and pried all over, chassis eared all over….nothing obvious. I didn’t even see this rock if not by chance on trying to find a spot to hang my GoPro.

Time will tell if this is the culprit.

 

[Artie]

It’s official, I’m calling it. I put in 15 miles of forest service roads without any popping. It was that flipping rock hiding back in there. How it made it in between the frame and body to be wedged back in there must have been lottery odds but it happened.

Thanks for all the suggestions from everyone. I’m now fluent in every spot that can make any type of popping sound on the front of a 200 series.