I'm beginning to have several problems in my 98 runner. First was a roaring noise, clunking noise, and ABS kicking in ALL the time on dry pavement. I changed the passenger hub bearing and CV axle and this fixed the roaring noise. I'm still having problems with the clunking and ABS. When I'm driving straight I hear a "da-dunk" every second or two. It seems to be coming from the front passenger? This clunking gets louder and louder up to around 50 and then it stops. From 30-50 my steering wheel starts to shake and steering feels slightly tighter. Above 50 all is pretty much normal. My tech at the dealership told me it may be my entire rack that is bad, but he isn't all that sure. Also my ABS started kicking in all the time when I brake. Even on dry normal paved roads. This started happening at the same time the clunking starting, so maybe they are related? All this started happening when I put my supercharger on! Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

i'm confused, I don't think ABS can be doing that. jack up some front tires and shake down your tires, can be partly ball joints, tie rods ect. check your brakes, tires for mud on the back side. my rack was bad, and it wasn't acting like my whole front wanted to die. try that first.

 

My driver rear axle seal just blew completely, so maybe that has something to do with the ABS?

 

Under further examination it appears the clunking maybe coming from the rear end? So now I'm looking at ujoints? I had the dealer grease all the points when they did the new cv and wheel bearing, but it didn't help the clunking.

 

Clunking from front or rear - when you put the sc on? Did it start immediately when you supercharged it or after a little while? Auto or manual? Does the clunking get more rapid with increased vehicle speed? Increased engine speed?

If it gets more rapid with increased vehicle speed, try jacking up the back end and turning the tires by hand - hold one still and turn the other, let one freewheel and turn the other etc. look for any "dead spots" or light clunking. I'm thinking differential here. Of course if this happened exactly at the same time as your supercharger, it could be something else. This shouldn't be related to your ABS problems though.

If you are sure that this happened exactly when you installed the SC and not a little bit after, I would check the VSV system for A.D.D. system -- maybe you got a hose in the wrong spot causing spontaneous engagement or disengagement of the front diff? Does your 4WD work fine?

Torture-test your C.V.s by locking in 4WD and (not on dry pavement mind you, unless you have multi-mode 4WD) turning in tight circles, left, right, forwards, backwards --- rolling in circles, accelerating in circles, etc. Any change in the clicking or clunking here is pointing towards CV joints.

 

This happened all stated maybe two weeks after I put the blower on. It is an auto transmission. The clunking seems to get more rapid as speed increases but then goes away around 50 mph. They are changing the rear axle seals on Monday, and will be checking the ujoints on the driveshaft for me. I hope there isn't any metal chunks in the rear diff as that be bad!

 

OK, I was thinking that maybe it was actually SC install related, if it is 2 weeks after then that's probably not it.

I broke the ring gear in my TRD locking diff and it make a clunk-clunk-clunk noise that got very bad at high speeds. I had it towed after pulling the rear driveshaft out in the middle of the highway and trying front-wheel drive - that didn't fix it. Jacking up the back end and rotating the tires I could feel the broken teeth. It was bad. $900 for a scrap-yard TRD locker installed.

I think I did that with my habit of turning corners by downshifting and popping out my stage II clutch to get the back end sliding through the corner. Then again, the first 12 months with the charger on there I replaced all my U-joints one after the other as they went out. Once you supercharge, any weak spots in your drivetrain are going to show up.

Here's hoping for U-Joints when you have them check it out. Since your clunk goes away at high speed rather than get worse, it doesn't sound the same as my problem. You might want to try the FWD trick if you are really curious and adventurous. It rules out anything driveshaft related and gives you a good chance to inspect the U-joints yourself.

 

Thanks for the advice Beto. The dealership told me today that my right axle shaft is bent and the left rear wheel bearing is bad along with the ABS ring. I guess I bent the axle when I rolled her onto her side in August. Well I'm going to be junk yard hunting as the dealership wants over $700 for the parts, and thats even at employee price! Yeah I guess I need to lay off the elocker burnouts!

 

Well I finally got everything fixed. I replaced my left side wheel bearings on the axle shaft, abs ring, inner axle, and cleaned the abs sensor. I got a junkyard axle shaft for the bent right side that still had good bearings. Put everything back together and put new shoes on too. I'm still getting a little seeping of gear oil from my left side though . I don't think it's the inner axle seal since its coming from inside the drum cover. I'm wondering if it's a wheel cylinder?