Noise from front end
 

My wife mentioned that our 2005 V6 2.7L AWD Santa Fe was making
a slight noise yesterday while driving. She said it kind of came and
went. Today it came and didn't go! I took it for a ride and there is
a pretty severe thumping type noise coming from the front end.
When I accelerate or coast it seems to go away, or at least isn't
as bad, but if I keep slight pressure on the gas pedal to maintain
speed it's crazy. The steering wheel shakes a bit and it's really
loud inside the car. The tires are new and the alignment was done
when I got the tires in May.

I'm thinking it may be something to do with the drive axle. Any help
would be appreciated before I go to work on it tomorrow. Thanks.

John

Well, the problem is fixed. After pricing cv joints and drive axles
last night and constantly trying to come up with some cheaper
reason for the noise in my head, I drove it to my parents house
to work on it in their driveway. I went to take the front driver's
side tire off and found that I didn't even need to use the lug
wrench to remove the lugs and I could take them off by hand.

Apparently they were just loose enough so that the tire wasn't tight
to the hub and the noise I was hearing was the tire wobbling.
I tightened them up good and checked the rest of the tires which
were fine. Took it for a ride and no more noise.

John

Scary that the lugs were that loose but glad to hear it was a cheap solution.

Thanks. I'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure there
isn't a problem and they loosen up again.

John