Bad popping/thumping noise from front end, 2006 Tahoe

[Livebai8]

You can try. I’ve narrowed (hopefully) my pop/clunk down to the transfer case and have ordered a reman. I’ve been over the whole undercarriage and can’t see anything that would duplicate the noise. I might get a GoPro and wire one underneath to at least try and see where it’s coming from. I *will* get to the bottom of it eventually and report back.

Mine might be ballpoint related…my helper recently advised me he didn’t know that the stem needed to travel a certain direction. I’m hearing/feeling the clunk when i reverse from left to right. Ill see what i come up with without my helper!!

 

[houstontaylor]

On my high milage 2003 Tahoe the 4WD shifting problems with the transfer case turned out to be a transfer case control module that was bad ( under the dash). As far as the clunking, there are lots of things that can cause that. You didn't mention ball joints. Also, right now I am looking to replace the torsion bar crossmember mount bushings. That is located about under the back seat floor and seems to make noise mostly on turns on bumpy roads on mine. My torsion bar bushings looked like they only had some age related cracks but when I jacked on the crossmember those cracks opened up to show total separations. No local shop called out those bushings - "the forgotten bushings" - and there is not even a replacement procedure in my service manual. My bad body mounts seemed to reliably make a clunking when backing out out of a parking spot while turning sharply, before they were replaced.

 

[Livebai8]

On my high milage 2003 Tahoe the 4WD shifting problems with the transfer case turned out to be a transfer case control module that was bad ( under the dash). As far as the clunking, there are lots of things that can cause that. You didn't mention ball joints. Also, right now I am looking to replace the torsion bar crossmember mount bushings. That is located about under the back seat floor and seems to make noise mostly on turns on bumpy roads on mine. My torsion bar bushings looked like they only had some age related cracks but when I jacked on the crossmember those cracks opened up to show total separations. No local shop called out those bushings - "the forgotten bushings" - and there is not even a replacement procedure in my service manual. My bad body mounts seemed to reliably make a clunking when backing out out of a parking spot while turning sharply, before they were replaced.

I wasn’t aware of those bushings… but I could/can feel mine is in the front wheel area. Hub is new although it sat for about a year before I put it on

 

[Filterless]

**follow up. I replaced the transfer case with a unit (NP246) from Kodiak Truck in WI - also put on a new nickel plated yoke from AAM. The random popping/clunk noise has totally gone. I didn’t pull apart the old case before I sent it back as a core, but it sure had play in the front output shaft, as well as slack in the chain. The Kodiak cases are probably the best remans on the market - the builder has a few good YouTube videos - they know what they’re doing. You can definitely get a cheaper reman case, but it won’t be like one of these ones. Easy swap out with jack stands and the right tools w/a helper to assist with the lift in and out. Good luck to all resolving with any other random clunks, etc!

 

[Owen]

**follow up. I replaced the transfer case with a unit (NP246) from Kodiak Truck in WI - also put on a new nickel plated yoke from AAM. The random popping/clunk noise has totally gone. I didn’t pull apart the old case before I sent it back as a core, but it sure had play in the front output shaft, as well as slack in the chain. The Kodiak cases are probably the best remans on the market - the builder has a few good YouTube videos - they know what they’re doing. You can definitely get a cheaper reman case, but it won’t be like one of these ones. Easy swap out with jack stands and the right tools w/a helper to assist with the lift in and out. Good luck to all resolving with any other random clunks, etc!

Awesome thanks for the update!