ilscott

I have a 2006 GX470 with 125K miles and have two problems which I think are related.

The vehicle does not come to smooth stop anymore. Just before stopping the car loses smooth braking and shudders a little just before coming to a complete stop. This is followed by an abrupt clunk shortly after stopping - as thought the gear has just dropped into an idle mode rather abruptly, but this is not accompanied by any change in engine revs. Upon setting off, there is also a noticeable clunk shortly after the car has moved a few feet. i.e. it starts smoothly but then goes clunk after about 6 feet. Both of these clunks appear to come from the front right of the vehicle. As usual with this type of problem, it never seems to want to do it when the mechanic is in the car and it took several test drives before he experienced it.

At the same time as this began to happen I noticed very uneven tire wear. The front tires both appear to be wearing down a lot faster than the back ones and the front right is wearing much faster than the front left. All tires are wearing evenly across the tire surface so it is not an alignment problem. I did have a problem with the right front tire losing air pressure and it was run for a couple of months with lower than desirable pressure but this was not enough to trigger the low pressure warning and it didn't show in the wear pattern. I also had new struts fitted as these were frozen. At the same time I replaced the front two tires (just a couple of months ago) and am already seeing noticeable wear on the front right tire.

My garage cannot find anything wrong with the vehicle and suggest that I drive it until it breaks a bit more. Any suggestions anyone?

Gene01

I would suggest that you get a better garage, unless the problem is intermittent. From the symptoms you describe, it should be easy for any competent mechanic to diagnose the problem.

chiph9

Try taking it by a four-wheel drive shop. They should be able to spot if there's something wrong in the driveline.

Chip H.