Hey all.

Lately I've been getting a pretty loud and serious sound when turning the steering wheel. It's a sound similar to meat going through a grinder. Really painful to hear it coming from your car. It happens when I'm going above maybe 5 mph and giving the wheel more than a half turn.

It's not a constant sound, but intermittent. At first I thought it was something like the wheel spokes scraping against the brake caliper. The spokes would explain the intermittent part, and there is very little clearance between the wheel and caliper.

However, there's still some space between them, and what could cause that gap to close when turning?

The right wheel makes the sound when turning left, and vice versa. They don't make the sound at the same time.

Could it be something like a CV boot? I'm not too familiar with steering/suspension.

I need this car to make a 250 mile trip tomorrow night, any help would be greatly appreciated.


Car is a 2003 Accord, 4 cylinder AT with about 137k miles, or 220k kilometres.

 

If it doesn't make the sound at a stand-still, then I think it'll be easier to pin point. Since it's an interference of some sort. Sounds like the CV boot.

I would jack the car up, take the wheels off, and give it a visual inspection.

 

Not always but usually CV joints make a "clicking" sound when going bad.

You don't say if this is a recent thing and / or an ongoing issue.
By chance have you recently washed your car or driven in the rain where your rotors have gotten wet? As a thought you may have some rust on your rotors and when turning the rust could be contacting your calipers. However use of your brakes should remove any surface rust. How many miles on your current pads? Time for replacement?
Again just a couple of thoughts. As suggested above, you may want to pull your wheels and take a look.

 

Vote for warped rotors.

 

you said something about you took a chunk out of your tire in another thread, I would suspect the same incident could have bent the splash guard the same wheel.

 

Not rotors, today was the first time I washed the car in months, and the rotors aren't warped. I replaced them a few months back, and they still brake smoothly. And the swipe from the tire chunk is on the side of the bumper, so I think that it was just deflected and I didn't drive over it. Splash guards are fine and straight, nonetheless.

It did make a clicking sound for a while, the scraping is very recent. Like maybe two weeks ago, but I haven't driven the car much. Would I still be able to make my trip tomorrow?

How can I check for bad CV boots with the wheels off?

Thanks for the help, guys.

EDIT: FWIW The car drives perfectly fine, no steering issues or anything. The only telltale sound that something is off is the noise.

 

Made the trip fine last night, but any significant gas application with the steering wheel fully turned sends a little kick back through the steering wheel.

I tried to replicate the sound for a friend last night, and it was much harder to do. Went back to a telltale clicking sound instead of a scraping noise. I guess that's good news, but I'm convinced it's a CV boot now.

 

if you suspect cv, check inside the wheels and underbody for grease being flung out. A torn boot will evacuate all the grease to either of these locations. If you turn the wheels to full lock and grab a flash light you should be able to spot a tear. This is basically what sound you should be expecting.