S70 creaking sound turns to grinding sound!

I have a 1998 S70 T5 that used to make a creaking noise when I made a slow
hard right turn, like when I would turn into my garage. I don't recall
hearing the same sound when making a slow hard left turn.

Driving around today, a new sound is arose. Now my car at slower speeds
sounds like a remote control electric car. It's almost like you can hear
the sounds of gears increasing in speed. After 30 mph, the sound changes
back to a normal sound. That sound also seemed to be louder right after
making a turn.

OK, so I am starting to think that maybe my power steering is failing.
Turning seemed to a little more difficult.

Well, to top this all off, I thought I heard some hissing sound inside the
car. I turned off the AC and radio, and a faint sound was heard, like
maybe air from a punctured tire. After I parked in the garage, I opened
the hood, but I didn't hear anything that could have been the source of
the hissing. However, as a test, I turned the steering wheel to the right.
YIKES!!!! I heard a grinding sound. It sounds like something is scraping
one the belts. The sound is loudest and most frightening when the wheel is
turned full stop and lessens a bit when straight.

What could be the problem??!?! The car has been flawless lately, but there
is the lingering message from my mechanic that some bushings are cracked
and that their failure would be very bad for the car's aluminum frame that
holds up the engine, so I'm guessing he was talking about an engine mount
bushing? Does this have any bearing on my situation!

Help me please!

Mike

 

I read this in the postings just now ... Could it be as "easy" as this?

--- cut/paste follows ---
No, very unlikely to be CV joints. Far more likely to be the lock stops.
There's a little arm on each hub which comes up against a nylon pad at full
lock to stop the steering from turning any further. When you drive along on
full lock, these arms move up and down on the pads as the suspension moves.
If there's not sufficient lubrication on them, they make a horrible noise.

Jack up the front of the car and remove the front wheels. Turn the steering
from lock to lock and observe the bits which stop it going any further.
Gives the ends of the arms and the nylon pads a liberal dose of grease, and
spread it with your finger over the rubbing surfaces. This should solve the
problem!

 

It could be. However - from your original post, you also said that you now
also hear a new sound when the car is in motion (no turning), that sort
of disappears as you pick up speed. If you did have a cracked CV boot
that lead to dirt accumulating in the joint, it is possible that you also
have a bad right axle now but the dirt grinding against the axle.

Grease the lock stops and see if that solves the problem. If it doesn't,
while you have the car jacked up, inspect the inner and outer (especially
the outer) CV boots. If they appear cracked, get a CV boot kit from IPD,
and hopefully that should fix the problem.

If that doesn't fix sound when the car is at low speed that disappears as
you pick up speed - the axle shaft may need to be replaced.

Beverly