OK. So she was quite as a mouse when I bought her a few months ago. I've only put 2,500 miles on her as well. 162,000 current miles.
#1. I have developed a clunk, click and pop noise from the front right of the car.

#2 My front left brakes click at slow speed and sound like crunching / sqeeking when depressing at a stop. This is only from the front left and only after they heat up!!! Quite as a mouse when cold!!

Car is lowered on Megan's. Lower strut rods were recently replaced before I bought the car.

Now I did disassemble and clean up the front left brakes and put some brake quite on the back of the pads. Problem went away but came back after a couple hundred miles.
The clicking, popping noise is getting worse and worse. It loud and sounds like something is breaking. Only noticeable when backing up or changing direction while turning the wheels. No noise over bumps. Turn the wheels and go back or forward from a stop and all kinds of noise!

Please help! I can do all the work.... just need good places to start checking. I hate just throwing money at problems until something works.

 

Check the upper & lower control arm bushings, upper and lower ball joints. Wheel bearings too.

 

No play in the wheel. Up on jacks there was no slop in any direction when grabbing the tire.

 

if you've never replaced the LBJ I'd wager that's it, they usually die around 80-95k miles. Check the UCA/LCA bushings, as well as upper ball joint, usually the type of noise you're describing is due to a bad ball joint rather than bushings.

The brake issue could be pad choice/missing shims, or a caliper in need of a rebuild.

 

I am having ONE of these problems as well. My front right wheel makes a mid to mid-low range, metallic "tick" sound that is quite audible but ONLY at slow speeds and ONLY when I am turning while moving over a bump or rain gutter in the street. I have just had my breaks and rotors replaced and it seems this sound started after doing that job.

Do you think it's the same thing or maybe a different issue?

Thanks,

B

 

Gonna jump on this thread too. I had my strut rod bushings replaced about 5k miles ago because I had some jolting and clunking when going over small bumps...but the feeling remained after the bushings were replaced. Today, I had my oil changed and the service tech noted that my lower ball joints are bad and said that would cause the clunking feeling and vibrations in my steering wheel. And I think I hear a faint clicking at low speeds too. Gonna order the lower ball joints (front) and have them installed. Sewell has them for about $90 each and they're charging me $270 to install them....does that sound ok on labor?

 

I'm a fan of changing as much as you can out at the same time otherwise you end up chasing different thuds and clunks around until everything is new anyway. Of course this depends on your mileage. The lower ball joints are a relatively easy R/R, but you may as well replace the tie-rod ends at the same time as they are already busted loose. I'd consider the lower control arm bushings and sway bar links as well. If you have basic tools none of these repairs are difficult.

 

Check for play both loaded and unloaded. In other words compress the suspension with the wheel off the ground and check for play. I would do it my self and than have it aligned at the shop. 270 is not bad considering the alignment but not great either.

 

$270 is ball park. As others mentioned, fix all the worn bushings joints, etc. so that you pay for one alignment.

Had a similar situation thinking only the strut bar bushings would fix it but wound up replacing the LBJ a few weeks later. That blew an extra $75 and I could have saved a bit on labor too ~$35.

 

if you register on sewell using your clublexus name, you can get a discount. i just priced ball joints yesterday since i need them as well and they came out to $72.62 each after discount, much better than $90. i'm going to see if my local dealership can price match .

 

I'll agree with the ball joints being your clunk, at least that's what mine is. When I raised mine up to check them they seemed tight enough....but they weren't. I also had the clicking with the brakes. The shims on my drivers side were loose somehow and all chewed up. The passenger side shims were gone.