When turning right thumping or rubbing sound

1999 Nissan Sentra GXE
It is a hard sound to describe, but sounds like its close to thumping, but not so. Its like a heavy rubbing/thumping sound and you can hear it best and loudest when you are turning to the right on a gradual right turn especially on deceleration lanes. If you go straight or turn left you can barely hear the sound. There are 3 Goodyear tires on the car and 1 Douglas XtraTrac from Wal-mart on the left side. The car also wobbles when going straight and the brakes are NOT being applied. The issue subsides when proper air pressure is in the tires, but the wobbling is still there. The guys at a local brand name repair shop say that all of the tires are "chopped" due to not having rotated and balanced them after too long, but my girlfriend has only had the new 3 Goodyear Viva put on in Sept 2005 and they didn't have a 4th so put on the Xtra Trac as the 4th. She went with the Goodyears because had problems with ALL 4 tires previously when using the Xtra Tracs and I recommended she bump up 1 quality level. I'm betting its that remaining Xtra Trac tire thats causing the issue, but its in the rear on the driver side and this sound seems like its coming from the front, plus the Wal-Mart out here says the Xtra Trac is fine and that other shop says that the tires are chopped (only with 15k on them) which causes the car to wobble like that. They inspected the brakes and hubs and say they seem fine. I have driven a lot of cars and I've driven much farther than I was supposed to without rotating and balancing the wheels and never experienced this type of effect and sound before. I swear its as if something is dragging or scraping more when turning to the right. If its the 1 shitty tire then why would it only do it when turning to the right? Any thoughts?

I am not familiar with your particular car but here is what I do know...

The wobbling I have seen when a car's two front tires have a vastly different amount of tread (i.e. one tire is nearly bald and the other tire has lots of tread left on it). Make sure both front tires have roughly the same amount of tread on them, if they don't swap the tires around until they do.

If either of the front two tires have angle/ramp wear across the tread from the steering being way out of alignment this can cause problems too, if they do have angle wear have the tires replaced and then have the alignment fixed.

I am not familiar with your particular car but here is what I do know...

The wobbling I have seen when a car's two front tires have a vastly different amount of tread (i.e. one tire is nearly bald and the other tire has lots of tread left on it). Make sure both front tires have roughly the same amount of tread on them, if they don't swap the tires around until they do.

If either of the front two tires have angle/ramp wear across the tread from the steering being way out of alignment this can cause problems too, if they do have angle wear have the tires replaced and then have the alignment fixed.

Well the front two are the Viva's and were bought at the same time. I've been looking around on other sites and now I'm starting to wonder if a wheel bearing is bad and if the sound I'm hearing is the brake pads scrapping the rotor when I turn right. Guess I should jack the car up and see if the wheel wiggles grabbing top and bottom.

wheel bearings or a wraped tire, i let mine sit for a month or so in the same spot and when i drove it the whole car shook violently, when i aired up the tires to about 5 psi over what they are rated for and then eased them back to proper pressure the issue went away, also im the kind of person that buys 2-3 tires at a time just like you and it tends to cause alignment/wear issues that cause thumping shaking in the car, if you can wait and its not too serious go with 4 quality tires like kumho or goodyear or something like that and have it aligned right after next time you swap them

also it may be a bent rim, and that sucks

wheel bearings or a wraped tire, i let mine sit for a month or so in the same spot and when i drove it the whole car shook violently, when i aired up the tires to about 5 psi over what they are rated for and then eased them back to proper pressure the issue went away, also im the kind of person that buys 2-3 tires at a time just like you and it tends to cause alignment/wear issues that cause thumping shaking in the car, if you can wait and its not too serious go with 4 quality tires like kumho or goodyear or something like that and have it aligned right after next time you swap them
She went to get the tires without me and like I was saying they only had the 3 left of the Goodyear's. I would've not settled for that if I was there. Bent rim is also possible as I've had someone at a Wal-Mart before tell me he couldn't get one of the rims to balance, however since then other people have been able to balance it just fine. I dunno. I've even had mismatch tires before and never had an issue like this. The car doesn't shake violently, but did shake violently once before when all 4 wheels were not balanced properly at ..... you guessed it..... a Wal-Mart. Again, it is a wobble that it does when going straight. Not a shake really and when you turn right you hear that scraping sound. Also I forgot to mention earlier that the car pulls left in addition to other behaviors.

So I guess what I'm hearing so far is to check for rim damage, check the 1 crappy tire to see if its the cause, and also check the tires for play in case bearings are bad. Anybody got anything else?

Bump

are they all the same size? that might be the difference. i know that my car once and a while will pull to the left a tad or the right because of tires not being properly inflated. maybe that one tire has a small leak.

im not too sure on this, so dont take my words for granted. properly inflate the tires, and see what happens. otherwise, it sounds like maybe the tires arent the same size all around.

This problem still exists. I'm beginning to notice other things that may be playing into this. The steering seems to respond late. Thats the best way I can describe it. Its like when I turn quick I feel the car respond .... just ... late.... like something sliding sideways and/or clanking. The issue when turning right and hearing the sound still exists and the car still wobbles. It had 89K on it and most of those miles are from pothole SouthEast Louisiana so I guess all the suspension components could be suspect at this point. Turning right though I still hear this scraping sound... I know this has to have something to do with this wobbling stuff when going straight.

FYI - All tires are same size and inflating all to proper pressure does help alleviate the problem a small amount, but it does not go away. Gets worse as tires loose air over time.

The problem with it getting worse as your tires loose air is to be expected from any car, the tires get squishy letting the car shift from side to side.

Well, if the tires were all balanced properly, your wheel bearings are all adjusted to the proper specifications, that leaves steering and/or suspension to be the most likely problems.

When going straight and the car wobbles does the steering wheel wobble too, or does the steering wheel stay still?

im thinking its a wheel bearing. your mechanic might not know that a wheel bearing can be bad and have no sideplay. my shadow is doing that right now. sounds like a real hard grinding when i take turns especially at highway speeds. plus theres some wobble to it. but when i shake down the front end its all tight. just in case get your tie rods and ball joints checked out.

The problem with it getting worse as your tires loose air is to be expected from any car, the tires get squishy letting the car shift from side to side.

Well, if the tires were all balanced properly, your wheel bearings are all adjusted to the proper specifications, that leaves steering and/or suspension to be the most likely problems.

When going straight and the car wobbles does the steering wheel wobble too, or does the steering wheel stay still?

Steering wheel WOBBLES - This would usually make me suspect rotors needing resurfacing, but it happens when the car is running WITHOUT the brakes pushed and sometimes sometimes sometimes I swear its a lil more prevalent when the brakes are pressed and when turning right.

im thinking its a wheel bearing. just in case get your tie rods and ball joints checked out.
:attention

I'm assuming that you have rack-n-pinion steering...

Center you steering wheel then lock the steering wheel (usually done by removing the ignition key) if it will still move wiggle the steering wheel until it locks.

Disconnect your outer steering tie rods from whatever pivot point they are bolted to, then push/pull on each tie rod, you should have very little play at all in each one. If the problem is with the right side your right hand (passenger side) tie rod should have a lot more play then the driver's side, if there is something wrong with it aside from replacing the entire rack assembly there is not much to do to correct this.

Check your wheel bearings though before you do anything else, the way I set mine up is I run the big nut in by hand until I can feel it get to tight when I spin the wheel, then I back it off just a hair until I get to a happy medium between too tight and too loose. I have never had a bearing fail on me that was set up this way.

I'm assuming that you have rack-n-pinion steering...

Center you steering wheel then lock the steering wheel (usually done by removing the ignition key) if it will still move wiggle the steering wheel until it locks.

Disconnect your outer steering tie rods from whatever pivot point they are bolted to, then push/pull on each tie rod, you should have very little play at all in each one. If the problem is with the right side your right hand (passenger side) tie rod should have a lot more play then the driver's side, if there is something wrong with it aside from replacing the entire rack assembly there is not much to do to correct this.

Check your wheel bearings though before you do anything else, the way I set mine up is I run the big nut in by hand until I can feel it get to tight when I spin the wheel, then I back it off just a hair until I get to a happy medium between too tight and too loose. I have never had a bearing fail on me that was set up this way.

Thanks Torch and Slideways. I have done a ball joint and all steering components job on my 3000GT before and replaced all except the hub, cv, and steering rack so I have a good idea of what to look for as far as bad joints goes. The idea of checking the tie rod play though after the steering wheel is locked is a really good idea. Experience pays off and lends to ideas like that. I'm really thinking wheel bearing myself and YES I'd bet it is common to think the wheel bearing is fine if there is no up/down side-play. Slideways - your problem sounds like mine too.

Torch what is the thinking behind not tightening the wheel bearing nut all the way? How do I CHECK the wheel bearing for being bad besides the up/down shaking of the tire once jacked up?

Is there a big danger here? I was planning on working on this next month when we are in a concrete driveway'ed apartment, but is there any danger of the wheel coming off or anything if this is just a bad bearing? I realize if the hub or knuckle was bad I'd be worrying about a wheel coming off, but never had to deal with bearings before.

As far as the bearings go... If you get them too tight the roller bearings will bind up in place then overheat and destroy themselves while they turn into metal shavings, too loose the concussive force of parts hitting other parts will destroy them as well. So I find a happy medium usually just short of being too tight.

A bearing failure shouldn't let your wheel come off, the internal friction of parts pulverizing themselves should cause the car to pull to one side and eventually stop the car dead in it's tracks. The disk brake caliper bolts should (for the most part) keep the wheel from coming off as well.

Checking the wheel bearings is fairly easy, do what ever you need to do to remove the bearings, spray all the grease out of them with brake cleaner. Individually check every roller, they should look smooth and shinny, bearings that are going bad will have pits and fissures, as well as hairline cracks, the chrome finish flaking off of them, or discoloration of the metal.

The cages that all the bearings ride in can also fail, either cracking or splitting, or the little frames that the bearings ride in can break apart.

Here is a website with a few pictures of some minor wheel bearing failures: http://www.theautoist.com/wheel_bearing_maintenance.htm

Here is an example of major bearing failure and/or metal fatigue, http://www.rogerhalstead.com/Gears.htm scroll down to pictures 2 and 4.

Thanks very much Torch. I will look at those photo links after this.

Question: If it is a bad bearing and car pulls left which bearing does that probably mean is bad (and noise sounds like its coming from the front)?

Most likely the outer bearing.

Most likely the outer bearing.

I know this may seem a silly question to ask, but I meant which side? If it pulls LEFT would it be the LEFT bearing? or the right?

With bearings the side that is pulling is the side that is bad.

With brakes the problem is on the opposite side of the car from the direction that it is pulling.