hello, on my 2003 hummer h2 i noticed that when i first leave home in the morning, when i am turning left there is a clunking /crunching noise. it sounds similar to like a pop can getting crumpled kinda thing, idk i suck at explaining noises. it will keep making this noise on every left turn. the right turns are perfectly normal and quite. i also noticed after 10 mins or so the noise goes away. it can only be heard when i am turning at slow speeds, idk if its still there when i am turning at 30-35 kmh. and like i said when i make right turns, everything sounds normal.

i think the culprit could be my driver side outer tie rod end. i recently did a bunch of suspension work a few months ago involving new control arm, ball joints, tie rods etc etc and i noticed that the boot on my driver side outer tie rod end was ripped a few months ago. they are moog greaseable design btw. I didnt think anything of it, i thought maybe it was just extra grease that came out of the zerk fitting. well last week i went to regrease and yeah the boot was indeed ripped and when i put in new grease, it basically came out when i did some turns. i ordered a new outer tie rod end and it will be coming today and i am going to be installing that. i havent done anything else like off roading or any bad driving. I do regularly drive on bumpy roads/ heavily pot holed roads and i feel like i should probably stop that as its probably doing more harm then good aha.

so i just wanted to ask, does this sound like its probably just the outer tie rod on my driver side? or could it be something else like the steering shaft or the pitman/idler arm?

thanks!

 

update: me and me my mechanic buddy pulled the tire off and checked the cv, wheel hub/bearing and the pitman. everything was stiff enough, like nothing was necessarily bad.
the tire had slight play when trying to shake it when its off the ground but it was very slight and my mechanic friend said it was normal and that a bad part would have way more play then that.
we swapped out the outer tie rod with the broken boot and went for a ride and of course the suspension was warm so it made no noises this time, he doesnt think its cv or wheel bearing related at all since he drove it. we hoped the outer tie rod end replacement would fix it but today in the morning the noise was still there but not as loud and went away in like 2 mins of driving.
upper ball joint lower ball joint tie rods etc were all newly greased last week as welll.

any ideas?

 

temporarily remove your aluminum skid plate and see if it goes away. It could be your skid plate