Matt300

2005 Civic LX, approx. 115k, M/T, Tokico Blue HPs, Tein S-Techs

About a week ago I started hearing this noise from the front passenger tire area. I don't want to say "popping", as I think of a short, loud noise. This increases in relation to how fast I am going. Sometimes it is when I am just accelerating from a stop and going straight, other times it is REALLY apparent when I'm making a U-turn at a median (turning hard and accel). I took it in to a shop today to get it checked out. They were busy as hell and couldn't get to it until near the end of the day. They drove it to recreate the noise, and it only happened once. It's sporadic. It varies from not being there to getting pretty loud. They tightened up the suspension, and told me to bring it back tomorrow morning if that didn't do the trick. I didn't hear anything on my way to class, but I took it for a spin afterwards and it came back. Driving down a road/highway is always smooth. It seems to be during turns (left especially) and when accelerating from a stop.

I should also mention that it is a recurring problem when the car is lifted. Any time it is picked up, the front-right wheel has some noise issues. It used to work itself out, but now it stays. I've had springs/shocks changed and nobody noticed anything about it. Last week, right before the noise, the car was picked up so I could get a tire rotation/balancing at Discount Tire.

Any ideas what it might be? I want to lean towards CV. I had those S-Techs installed about a month or two back, and I didn't have any noise issues. The Tokicos are maybe a year and a half old. I'm taking my car back tomorrow, but I'm hoping to zero in on the problem and get it resolved quickly. I lose a ton of money when I can't use my car for work. I'll see about recording the noise with my camcorder, but it might be hard with all the header/exhaust work on the car. Not sure if the noise will get in the way.

Matt300

Just to update in case anyone else gets this problem:

Turns out the CV boot was bad, which then started to do a number on the hub bearings. Got both replaced. The parts came out just under $300. Since that was a little higher than the quote, the labor is only going to be $90. That's also including installing some new brakes I ordered earlier.

I tried it out, but the noise was still there. Supposedly we got defective bearings, so the guy is going to send those back and just get me some from Honda. I'm (hopefully) getting the ride back tomorrow afternoon after work.