Howdy all.....I have found the forum to be a very valuable place to get problems of a difficult nature resolved, and today, I have a bit of a sticky whicket.

Today, I noticed that my 06 R50 has a sound coming from my steering column that can be best described as a the sound you would expect to hear when a fat man with corderory pants is walking and his thighs are rubbing together. I found this video on Youtube that is pretty much what I am experiencing.


OK, so what I know it is NOT......

The steering column or lower support bearing. I disconnected the universal joint at the base of the steering Column and turned the column side to side, and no noise at all! I hooked it back up, and the noise returns. It almost sounds exactly like it is coming from the clock spring area of the column but once that column is disconnected, not a peep so I know its being transmitted up through the steering shaft to the column.

So, Something is transmitting this noise up the steering shaft. Now yesterday was a VERY rainy day, and I did hit a very large puddle on the road at a fairly high rate of speed (maybe about 6 inches of water at 50 mph) so this bears mentioning.

No noise coming from upper strut mounts, whatever it seems to be it appears to be between the telescoping portion of the steering shaft and the rack and pinion.

Any ideas?

 

I just started experiencing the same issue....05' R-53. Were you able to resolve it?

Thanks
Brad

 

I sure did figure it out! The hard way! I could not detect ANY noise from the upper strut mounts, but after taking it to a very good front end guy I know, he heard me pulling into the ship and waved me off and told me to go buy upper strut mounts.

I couldn't believe it because I could not detect anything coming from there, but I took the struts off and replaced them with Moog aftermarket replacements and if you can believe it....The Moog replacement part was WORSE! I took it to my buddy and he listened to them and said...."its still coming from the upper strut mount!"

It started creaking even worse than before! I took it all apart again and found that the rubber isolation materiel was designed incorrectly and was rubbing against the strut tower on the inside.

I took the Moog units off and ended up buying a set of FIXED CAMBER PLATES from Ireland Engineering which had a nice beefie bearing up on the top of them. After a couple months, the drivers side bearing failed and the creaking was gone, but turned into crunching. UGGG!!!!!! I ended up sending them back to IE with a note telling to shove those things up their A$$ES! They sent me a new set of bearings and I immediately put that crap on Ebay!

I ended up going over to see Chad at Detroit Tuned and bought a pair of OEM upper strut mounts from him and have not had a peep out of her since!

 

Haha!...so glad you were able to find the problem. I had already resigned myself to replacing the steering shaft assembly, but with 155,000 miles I'll happily start with new struts and upper strut mounts since it's time for new ones anyway. Stay safe and motor on, I appreciate the reply,

Cheers,
Brad

P.S. I'll keep you posted!

 

Moog ones have been talked about here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ming-help.html