[Vwdiesel] knocking front wheel-huh?

[Roger Brown]

Mike & Coreen Smith wrote:
>
> Had a wicked thump/knock in my front wheel the other night.  Thought the
> wheel was going to fall off.  The CV joint has been tinging/rattling/pinging
> a bit lately (last 10,000kms) so I thought maybe this was it.  Nope.
> Anyways, it was SOOOO bad, I pulled over (from 20kms of highway driving) and
> checked the lugnuts, as I literally thought I was going to lose a wheel; it
> was that bad.
>
> Test drove the car 2 days later and nothing. Zip, nada, zilch. Ran as smooth
> as always !!??
>
> What gives?
>
> Bro-in-law (mechanic) thought maybe somehow caliper got stuck on, heating up
> rotor and then it became warped and started to knock/bang/thrash about.
> Once cooled,maybe  it straightened up and all is fine.

A bad outer CV can come and go.  On my old '81, it apparently had a bad CV when I bought it and it slowly failed over the next 2
years.  It would clunk and bang (you could feel the pulsing in the steering wheel) then it would run smooth for days to weeks.
Finally siezed up solid one day when I finally had it replaced (I thought it was the wheel bearing before that and had had that
replaced).  Even when it had siezed, locking up the wheel, when it was pulled off, it felt smooth but just a little excess
play.

--
    Roger