Where to start....I have a 2013 Dodge Dart, its got about 87k miles on it and I'm guessing because of the age I have been unable to find much of anything relating to my problems. I'll go over them below and what I think (in my amateur garage mechanic mind) the problem is and I'm hoping someone can help me to confirm my own diagnosis, or point me in the right direction to figuring out the problem and fixing it.


Problem 1. Creaking sound when turning the wheel in either direction at slow speeds

What I think it is: CV joints, my previous car and my friends car started doing this, we replaced the CV joints and the sound went away and never came back, the problem is i have found it IMPOSSIBLE to find the drive side CV shaft. I went to every single auto parts store in my area and couldn't find it, and I've been through google and found one site: moparone.com, that looked like they had it but it said it was for the manual trans, not sure if that matters or not

Problem 2. Banging and/or rattling sound when going over bumps.

What I think it is: This one i'm not to sure on, I've read it might be tie rod ends, a symptom of the CV joints going out, or something having to do with the top of the strut, but I'm not sure. I know on my old truck when it started making a sound similar to that it was the lower ball join going out.

Problem 3. Rattling and vibration from the engine compartment when cold. I can't really describe the sound beyond that, it doesn't really go away just picks up in frequency with the engine RPM's and goes away when it fully heats up.

What I think it is: NO FREAKING CLUE lol. When the hood is up you can barely hear it if you put your ear really close to the pulleys, making me think its a pulley or something possibly but its weird because its extremely pronounced in the cab, to the point when if the RPM's are up high and you let them come back down as the car decelerates in a lower gear, it will rattle the windshield, but almost inaudible in the engine compartment. I took it to a mechanic and he was baffled, he couldn't find the source of the sound, dude looked like a doctor with his stethoscope poking around in the engine compartment but still couldn't find it.

Sweet lord that is a long winded post!! Anyways, I really don't want to take it to the dealership and have to mortgage my house just to pay for the repairs but I am getting really close to that point with the number of problems showing up and the difficulty of finding parts for it. Any help or insight into these problems would be greatly appreciated.

 

Front end could be anything you mentioned as well as ball joints. Time for a suspension inspection. Pull the wheels and inspect everything. Rattling and vibration from engine could be motor mounts. Be worth taking it somewhere for an inspection if you don't know what to look for.