I just got the steering problem squared away last week. If someof you remember my topic about it. It turned out to be the same inner tie rod I replaced almost 9 months ago. Anyhow, I fixed it and all was happy. Then this week the damn goat decided to start puking something else up. I figgured I would ask you guys first before it's scheduled to go in the shop. Here's the deal...
Tuesday was any ordinary happy day untill the car started making this clacking sound out of the clear blue. At first it sounded almost like a exhaust pipe situation. We have salted roads so I figgured it wasn't all that happy. I drove it home with an occasional clack clack clack from somewhere under the front seats. Parked it and left it be till I could look under the next day. I checked the damn thing bumper to bumper for anything that may have come loose and found nothing. I checked the tires everything seemed fine there as well. I started it up, left it in park, and started to rev the motor to see if I could duplicate the noise at a stand still. No noise. I put it in gear, set the brake, and did the same. No noise. took it around the block and the same noise came out again. Then we come to today. The car wasn't driven between then and now. On the way into town I noticed the familier clack clack clack as it came and went. When going up a hill it started to get really loud and angry and the car began to shake. I parked it checked the tranny fluid to find it a little low. Tossed some in rechecked the level and all was good. the noise subsided substantially and the shake and shimmy went away. However there is still some clack clack clack going on but not quite as loud as before. The fluid levels are fine. There is no leaks I can see where we normally park.
Next Wednesday I have it scheduled to go into the shop to see if they can figure it out since I'm at a loss. The damn sound is coming from the tranny area the best we can tell. It's an 89 GT 5.0 automatic with roughly 180,000 on the clock. I'm not sure when the last time the filter was changed or serviced. I know we haven't done it in 15,000 miles ourselves. At this point I'm almost pissed enough to shoot the old horse. Any ideas?
Tuesday was any ordinary happy day untill the car started making this clacking sound out of the clear blue. At first it sounded almost like a exhaust pipe situation. We have salted roads so I figgured it wasn't all that happy. I drove it home with an occasional clack clack clack from somewhere under the front seats. Parked it and left it be till I could look under the next day. I checked the damn thing bumper to bumper for anything that may have come loose and found nothing. I checked the tires everything seemed fine there as well. I started it up, left it in park, and started to rev the motor to see if I could duplicate the noise at a stand still. No noise. I put it in gear, set the brake, and did the same. No noise. took it around the block and the same noise came out again. Then we come to today. The car wasn't driven between then and now. On the way into town I noticed the familier clack clack clack as it came and went. When going up a hill it started to get really loud and angry and the car began to shake. I parked it checked the tranny fluid to find it a little low. Tossed some in rechecked the level and all was good. the noise subsided substantially and the shake and shimmy went away. However there is still some clack clack clack going on but not quite as loud as before. The fluid levels are fine. There is no leaks I can see where we normally park.
Next Wednesday I have it scheduled to go into the shop to see if they can figure it out since I'm at a loss. The damn sound is coming from the tranny area the best we can tell. It's an 89 GT 5.0 automatic with roughly 180,000 on the clock. I'm not sure when the last time the filter was changed or serviced. I know we haven't done it in 15,000 miles ourselves. At this point I'm almost pissed enough to shoot the old horse. Any ideas?
I checked with some guys on FlateRateTech as well and they mentioned the same thing with the u joints. One even mentioned the noise may be from the cats falling apart. So it may be a combination of things. I always figured that when the u joints went bad it clunked when putting the car in gear. Mine doesn't do that. It does kinda hit hard when shifting through the gears though and thats even with normal transmission fluid level. 
I do have an 89 LX 5.0 hardtop that has a 5 speed already. This is the wifes car and she had a hard time driving mine with the stickshift and the power. She's used to driving a Central European car with a stickshift. Much more under powered and forgiving.
