I recently drove from Norfolk, VA to down around Temple, TX. Along the way I ended up running over a piece of metal in the road and lost the Falken tire I was running up front. It was replaced with a Bridgestone Potenza shortly thereafter. Immediately after that I started noticing the car pulling to the left so I know I at least need an alignment. My grandpa suggested that the different tread patterns on the two front tires might have something to do with it so we swapped those too. Still pulls to the left. Like I said before I know the car at least needs an alignment but what has me worried is this noise I'm hearing from the front left side. Whenever the car hits a bump while its leaning to the driver's side I get a nasty grinding sound. Whenever it hits a bump on a level surface you don't hear anything but say your turning right out of a gas station and there's a little dip before you actually get into the road...hit that at anything less than a creep and you get the same nasty grinding sound. When I was leaving Nashville the other morning I almost missed my on ramp and had to yank the wheel to the right to make it. When I did this the front left tire skipped a little bit on the pavement and when it did I got the same nasty grinding sound, except it went along with the tire skipping, so it went crunch, crunch, crunch very quickly. Scared the hell out of me. Now I've looked at the ball joints and tie rod ends and they seem to be ok. Ball joint boots aren't cracked and there's no play from top to bottom when jerking on my wheels. The tie rod boots are cracked but they don't have any play in them. So has anyone ever had an experience like this before. If I had to point my finger at anything I'd say a ball joint but I'm not sure. I'm going to take it to a shop but I just wanted to get everyone's opinion.

 

Any ideas?

 

as you think may be a cacked bj, may be cracked wheel bearing?,
do not remember if you have a dusk cover on front rotor if so it may rub rotor,
only thoughs for now, Johnny

 

Well, I guess it could be the wheel bearing but the wheel spun very freely and there wasn't any noise from it. Also, there wasn't any play when jerking the wheel top top bottom and side to side.