Alright, my MPG has gone down the crapper.
I was thinking it was another exhaust leak from a burned out gasket.

But recently every once n awhile my car makes a "duh duh duh" noise that thumps for a little bit usually when I slow down. However tonight,I hopped in my car which was cold and whenI went to make a left hand turn and it made those noises again but louder and my steering wheel kept jerking to the right. Turning right it doesnt do it, but when I turn left there is def. more resistance. I just talked to my dad briefly and he thinks it may be a CV joint possibly instead of a dragging caliper or whatnot. I might be taking a 400+ mile trip March 9-15 so time is running out.

What do you think this is?
How expensive is it to get a CV joint replaced?
And I am assuming that would have nothing to do with the junk MPG.

 

Forgot to mention my car has 93k miles, and received new tires 10k miles ago.
I also had an inspection done at Midas a few months ago and they said I could use brakes, but if I didnt get them then they would still last a year or two maybe.

 

I don't know how much inspection you have done but I would try first by jacking up the front of the car and feeling around. Spin the wheel and see how quickly it stops, should stop pretty quickly and should not take huge amounts of muscle to spin. Also put one hand at 12 o'clock position and one hand at 6 o'clock position and check for play, there should be no play. Usually when cv joints fail they will make more of a clacking sound. Look at your tie rods and bushings, sway bar etc. You might also want to do a bounce check to make sure the strut is ok.
Hope this helps or gives you an idea of where to look.

 

I think the struts are wearing out. Usually my suspension is pretty loud on cold morning and likes to squeak. Could that affect the steering wheel and such? Does the bounce test simply mean to push down on a corner and make sure it lifts right back up?

 

Suspension can effect steering, usually something has to be pretty bad. The bounce test is crude way to check but can give you a good idea, simply bounce the front end of the car, stop and the car should level out and not continue to bounce.
I had an '81 Datsun 280ZX that had a bad front right strut and would shake so bad that I thought the tire was going to come off! BUT it wouldn't do it all the time. After so much momentum the strut would get bouncing and would end up just vibrating down the road and at only 30-35 mph or so.
You also might want to go to an empty parking lot and drive around in circles a few times if you are having trouble getting it to make the noise or whatever.

P.S.- I thought I saw a pair of projector headlights for sale on ebay with your screen name on the pics, is that you?

 

Alright, after I come home from Chicago tomorrow I will try and do some testing on this thing (im not driving there).
Do you have any rough estimates as to strut and/or CV joint replacements are?
Also, and ideas on my horrible gas mileage? 23-24 is horribly w/ the majority being 65-70mph interstate driving.
Ugh, I feel I am going to be needing that $300 rebate from the gov't pretty soon.

Yes, those were my headlights on eBay! Kind of a small world! lol

 

I'm not sure about prices but as long as your car is running good I would say the problem is suspension or maybe brakes. Does the wheel with the supposed bad caliper have more dust around it than the other? How is your city mpg's? Highway miles usually arethe greatest effected by bad suspension etc.while city is close to the same.

 

It is running just about the same as I can tell.
There has always been a slight back and forth shake through the steering wheel for quite some time.
Brake dust, I am running the stock steelies w/o hubcaps and they are pretty dirty w/ mud so I cannot say brake dust wise. I still dont know which wheel the noise is coming from, though I am most positive it is the front passenger side. Do you think this could have caused a 6-8 mpg drop? I usually would get 28 or 29 mpg. City wise, I dont really know..I do combined but its mostly 70/30 interstate driving.

 

Its quite possible the noise and steering wheel movement is the cause of your poor mpg's. The shaking can be a wheel out of round, out of balance, bad tie rod, etc. If you have bad suspension components it usually means that there is play and something is loose which could mean wasted energy or in you case mpg. I think you should do the parking lot thing to figure out which wheel it is. Have a friend hang their head out the window and listen while you feel the steering wheel for movement. Then inspect the that wheel area and suspension stuff.

 

Alright. Thanks for the great information! I will try to do that tomorrow. Hopefully the fix is relativley cheap and corrects my MPG problem.

Any other ideas are still very much welcome and apreciated!