Achopson

Hey guys I’m having a noise I can’t quite figure out. When turning left at slow speed there is a continuous clicking/clunking noise coming from the front left wheel. This typically only happens in 4lo and sometimes in 4hi. I’ve never had it happen in 2wd. I’ve attached a video of the front drive shaft when I had the front wheels off the ground and turned it by hand back and forth and physically moving the drive shaft itself up and down. I initially thought it may be the u joints but I couldn’t find any play in any of the u joints. I’m thinking it’s due to poor alignment, bad cv-axle, or possibly something with the front differential. I’d like some other opinions before I go replacing a bunch of parts that don’t necessarily need to be replaced at the moment. Thanks!

2010 jeep wrangler sport unlimited

resharp001

I see no video posted. easiest to post to youtube and simply paste a link here which will embed the video. there is no CV-axle in the jeep so not that. when talking about the front driveshaft, you're saying that you can physically move that up/down as in there is slop in the pinion (not talking about rotational motion)??

Achopson

I couldn’t get a video to upload but yes there’s some play where the front drive shaft connects to the tcase

resharp001

ok, so you were maybe talking about the driveshaft's CV joint before even though referred to "axle" (presume we're still talking a factory front DS on this 2010). the easiest thing for you to do is remove the front DS and test drive. it's not a 5 minute job cuz of those little bolts on the TC side, but it's not difficult either, and it's free. the typical noise from a bad CV joint is going to be clicking, and obviously there's going to be more stress on that front DS in 4Hi or 4Lo vs. 2Hi....and there's more stress while turning than going straight too.

Achopson

sorry yes I meant the drive shaft’s cv axle. I thought about removing it but I can’t get the noise to happen in 2wd so I figured it wouldn’t happen in 4wd. After some further testing I’ve come to the conclusion it’s a bad wheel bearing. I think I’m going to replace the hub and see if it stops, if not then I’ll have to try some other things but the wheel bearing sounds horrible anyway so no harm in replacing.