Thought I noticed a clunk when flipping a U-y the other day and sort of shrugged it off. Well tonight after mowing the lawn and cleaning up the front yard, I went to pull my truck back into the driveway and I felt it again. Hmm I thought, time for a test drive. So I drive up to a nearby high school parking lot to do some donuts (low speed of course) with the window down, radio off, and a/c off so I can listen better. Sure enough, when making left hand turns I feel the clunk every so often. Seemed to be coming from the front end, felt like the driver's side. So I commence to doing donuts in the opposite direction and feel the clunk while turning right also, but not as noticeable.

What do you guys think. My truck now has 70k on it, still too soon for ball joints right? I'm thinking driver's side wheel bearing. Doesn't it seem odd that a wheel bearing would go out so soon too though? Tire wear is normal, no noticeable squeaks or squeals while driving around town, just noticed this at first when making a low speed u-turn the other day.

Could it be the LS differential? I know they can feel funny sometimes, but to me it felt like something else.

I'll jack my truck up some time this week and check the ball joints. Is there a way to test wheel bearings without taking everything apart? I had a wheel bearing go bad on me before (different truck) and this kind of reminded me of that.

 

I noticed something similar once, eventually realized that it started after I had taken the truck out of 4 wheel drive.

I locked the hubs, put it back in 4 drove it a little then took it out of 4 and set hubs back to auto..clunk went away. Worth a try, its not to say there couldnt still be an underlying issue though.

 

going to try that right now. i first noticed this after the truck was in 4x4. i was backing up our travel trailer (up the driveway) and one of the rear wheels was on grass so i couldn't get any traction. i popped it into 4x4 and no problems. anyway i noticed the clunk after disengaging 4x4 and flipping my truck around. i'll repost in a few.

 

I put the hubs into locked position and drove around the hood, then back to my driveway and put the hubs back to auto. Took truck up to parking lot and all is well. All I can think of is maybe one of the hubs was locked already (it was dark so i couldn't see tell for sure). I got the flashlight and made sure they are in auto now.

I'm wondering if those wheel cleaners at the car wash could flip the hub into a different position? Worth checking next time I go to the carwash. Anyone know if I could have damaged something by having one hub locked? I have no idea how long it might have been locked. Only noticed this problem yesterday but my last carwash was a couple weeks ago...

thanks for the reply bheaver, appreciate the help

 

That's exactly the same problem I encountered 3-4 weeks ago. I got the same suggestion and bingo that fixed it. Got me kind of worried until I found that out.

 

glad to know i'm not alone here, still feel kinda like i should have figured it out on my own though. oh well, all is well so i am happy