So I took my wife's car to work yesterday (the X) and I realized that it has developed a few loose type noises since the last time I drove it about a month ago.
1. When you take you foot off the accelerator pedal and suddenly put it on again at about 10-20 miles per hour, you hear and feel a looseness type of clank sound. If you ease into the gas at the same speed, you'd never know the difference. Could this be a mount that has gone bad or do I smell tranny issues?
2. The steering wheel has started to make a clicking sound that happens when you move from center to left or right. You feel the click in your hand on the steering wheel. I'm sure many have experienced this before and so have I but on much crappier cars. Is that the rack and pinion, arms, or could it be as simple as a bushing in the steering column?
3. This noise was there before but it's gotten a bit louder not. It comes from the back of the car and happens if the car shifts weight slightly or if it hits potholes. I've stuffed every crack but I can't think what else I can look at. It has the self leveling suspension dome where the spare tire is located but I haven't opened that to look inside. Maybe something is loose there? Could it be the bushings on the rear shocks?
4. This noise was also there before but it annoys the living crap out of me. It sounds like it is coming from underneath the front passenger dash area (right under the wood trim piece and the airbag area. I've taken the glove box apart but everything seems tight so I'm out of ideas.
5. Lastly, I noticed that once in a while when slowing down to a stop you now feel a down shift happening where as before you never did.
The car is the 03 4.4 pictured in my profile with about 106k on the clock. I really love the car and it's overall very clean and most importantly... Paid off after sucking the life out of me for 5 years
What should I do? In you guys' experience / opinion... are these repairs major or small? I know noise in a car is like a warning sign, but as to what...
Thanks for your 2 cents!
