tommadeez

OK, so here's the lowdown...

my girlfriend's got a 95 cavalier, decent little car, until a few months ago she was making a right turn and clipped the center median with her front left tire.
BANG!!
Instantly the rim was bent WAY out of shape and the tire blew out...
she managed to pull over immediately into a gas station and put on her spare tire...
the following weekend, i managed to get a used rim and new steer tires for the car, problem fixed right? Not so lucky...
its got this nasty *** grinding noise (like a shot bearing...)when you drive it, the noise almost seems to get louder when you make a right turn and totally disappears when you turn left!

first suspect was the left wheel bearing, pulled it and sure enough, its got a fair bit of play, so i replace it...
test drive it again, and the damn noise is still there...

we then got a set of 4 brand new snow tires thrown on (that time of year...) noise continues...

so its gotta be the damned CV right? i actually managed to change out the whole left CV axle this morning at work, changed the transmission fluid too...
(oil was a little dirty, but no metal flakes at all, good stuff right?)

so i jump in it after cleaning up and drove it home, but the god-damned noise continues... I'm stumped... honestly, what else could it be?

i have had the car on jack stands and put it in drive, got it going pretty good, but no noise... so the noise is only there when there's weight on the tires... and as i said above, it totally disappears when the car is turned left...

PLEASE HELP

tech2

sounds like an alignment issue. If anything is bent, the steering wheel is usually off-centre. the tires may be scrubbing.


check your winter tires for toe wear, which if present sounds like a bad bearing...they will have a saw toothed wear pattern. either way it needs an alignment check

BW56

Just for a lark swap both front tires/wheels to opposite side and see if noise follows.

sledge.impy

There are warnings about driving with the tires in the air over 35mph? or is it less?

Is it the steering?

Are the tie rod ends good? or broken and gone?

tech2

I never go over 55. the danger is if one wheel is stopped the diff is turning at 2x that speed.