Venture front end noisy

[toni1595]

Hello all. Lately the wife's 1999 Chevy Venture has been making a strange "muffled booming", if you will, noise. It seems to do it when you are turning mostly. It almost sounds like a deadened spring moving around or something. I've been underneath it and looked things over but I can't really see anything that's loose. I do think that the struts are bad and this noise may be coming from that, because there is a spring around them and where the struts are questionable maybe that is causing a noise. I did a search and have read where the struts have a "bearing" attached to them somewhere and that a noise can develop from that. I also read where someone else had some tranny work done and there was a frame bolt that wasn't tightened properly and that will cause a problem as well. Anyone have any thoughts on something like this?? Thanx.

[toni1595]

O.K. I had to change the oil today and while I was under there checking things out I had her turn the steering wheel as I took my flashlight and really studied this problem. What I noticed was that as the wheel was turning there was a socket looking unit over the top of the strut spring and the noise was definitely coming from right there. It appears that this supposed to rotate as the wheel is turning and it was acting very dry and making the strut spring kind of jump about a little. I took some PB Blaster and sprayed around the socket. I'll let her use it a while and see if that rectifies the problem. I'll post back and let anyone know in case they have the same trouble. Toni.

[toni1595]

Seems I'm doing this more often than not. The problem in this case was the bearing at the top of the strut tower. It was binding and the power steering was overcoming it and causing a banging noise. I had to have the struts replaced and the shop that did the work discovered the problem. Just in case anyone developes this symptom, this may help.