I have a mystery on my hands... Car is a 2006 KIA Spectra, 103,000 miles. Here's the story:
Daughter comes to me saying car is making a loud clicking noise when she lets off gas or coasts. Says it started after a panic stop when someone pulled out in front of her. No sideways skid or anything like that, just a hard brake for a couple seconds. Drives on, lets off gas, clicky noise. I take the car, drive it, and it does it when coasting, decelerating, rolling with engine off in neutral, wheels turned or straight. I look at it, cannot find anything obvious. CV joint boots are intact, removed the brake calipers and changes brake shoes and rotors. nothing wrong. Take car to mechanic. he says he has never heard anything like this, and to take it to transmission specialist. So today, I do just that. Tranny guy takes it for a drive. comes back, looks underneath, works and shifts great, but says he has never heard anything like this before. So I take it home, jackstand it, and start looking. the only thing I can find at all, is a slight bit of fresh looking whiteish grease coming out of the RHS Half-shaft inner joint. Not very much, but enough to notice it when looking at it. I held the wide part of the joint, where it goes into the tranny, and took my other hand and tried to move the skinny part of the shaft up and down, in and out. I expected in and out, but did not expect to find a slight amount of up and down movement. I'd say about 2-3mm. Made me think maybe the joint on the inside is bad? this shaft, of course, is the longer one, that goes to the RHS wheel. I could not get the same movement out of the shorter LHS one,
So, could this joint movement possibly be causing my issue, or is it pretty much normal to have some up and down play in the longer joint? I am pulling my hair out trying to figure this out, short of replacing the tranny, and hoping that fixes it. I drained fluid from the drain pan, and there is no sign of excess metal, or slot-machine chunks coming out. Fluid looks and smells serviceable. ANY suggestions welcome.
Daughter comes to me saying car is making a loud clicking noise when she lets off gas or coasts. Says it started after a panic stop when someone pulled out in front of her. No sideways skid or anything like that, just a hard brake for a couple seconds. Drives on, lets off gas, clicky noise. I take the car, drive it, and it does it when coasting, decelerating, rolling with engine off in neutral, wheels turned or straight. I look at it, cannot find anything obvious. CV joint boots are intact, removed the brake calipers and changes brake shoes and rotors. nothing wrong. Take car to mechanic. he says he has never heard anything like this, and to take it to transmission specialist. So today, I do just that. Tranny guy takes it for a drive. comes back, looks underneath, works and shifts great, but says he has never heard anything like this before. So I take it home, jackstand it, and start looking. the only thing I can find at all, is a slight bit of fresh looking whiteish grease coming out of the RHS Half-shaft inner joint. Not very much, but enough to notice it when looking at it. I held the wide part of the joint, where it goes into the tranny, and took my other hand and tried to move the skinny part of the shaft up and down, in and out. I expected in and out, but did not expect to find a slight amount of up and down movement. I'd say about 2-3mm. Made me think maybe the joint on the inside is bad? this shaft, of course, is the longer one, that goes to the RHS wheel. I could not get the same movement out of the shorter LHS one,
So, could this joint movement possibly be causing my issue, or is it pretty much normal to have some up and down play in the longer joint? I am pulling my hair out trying to figure this out, short of replacing the tranny, and hoping that fixes it. I drained fluid from the drain pan, and there is no sign of excess metal, or slot-machine chunks coming out. Fluid looks and smells serviceable. ANY suggestions welcome.