My Pontiac Makes Terrible Sounds, Help!

DasBoot

I am the owner of a 1990 Pontiac LeMans LE. Starting at the beginning of the month, sometimes when I turn the car makes sort of a metal popping noise in the driver side front wheel. After being bothered enough by the sound I decided to take a look at it.



By comparison, that pin type thing in the back ground on the passenger side looks like this:


At some point the bolt holding the the pin that holds that curly bit down to the lower part of my axle broke and now it is free on my driver side. My assumption is that when I turn the front axle shifts to compensate for the car leaning and that loose pin comes down, strikes the part it used to be attached to and make the sound I hear.

So my questions are-
What is that pin thing called? Is this the kind of part that can be replaced independently of what it is attached to, or is it one of those things that they will just chuck the whole thing and charge me tons for it? How much do you think the whole thing would cost?

And most importantly- what are the chances of my wheel collapsing on the highway and killing me if I keep driving on it?

Lord Yod

That looks like your sway bar broke loose. (I simply cannot remember the name of the rod - the actual sway bar is the horizontal, zig-zag bar that goes from one wheel to the other)

The sway bar isn't a critical suspension component - your wheel won't fall off - but it is important because it helps stabilize the car, particularly through turns, particularly at anything like high speed.

So:
-No your wheel won't collapse
-Yes you should get this checked out (it looks like either rust or metal fatigue did it in, but if it's just a broken bolt it shouldn't be too expensive to have it replaced)
-Yes you can keep driving on it, but this is not something I would put off for too long. It definitely will negatively impact the handling of the car (no doubt you noticed that already), it can cause damage to that axle depending on how they come into contact, and it can make it harder to avoid an accident should it be necessary.

Ruckus

I've been driving with a broken Sway Bar Link on my passenger side for almost a year now. Sway bars compensate for the tendancy of a vehicle to lean/roll due to various forces. It also slightly restricts the movement of the suspension to do this, and one thing that happens is the sway bar or link may contact the CV shaft when above normal weight is put on that corner of the car.

But luckily, if it's just the Links, you're probably looking at less than $50 in parts. You will want to replace the links on both sides, but unfortunately this job is sometimes outside of the realm of basic maintenance.

I always recommend people get a Chilton/Haynes manual for their car, it will tell you how much work it should be.

Hawkstone

The major thing is that with this in particular that although your safe you can do further damage to your CV joint, and suspension if you do not drive it some what gingerly until you can get it fixed. The extra move and flex isnt good for the other parts around it. If you are good with cars its an afternoon fix and 50 -75 bucks in parts...mechanic will be a good bit more as its a little time consuming.