Car Nerds, need your help. Don't be wrong this time. Thanks.
So I was getting this weird THUNK noise from the passenger side front tire area when I would back out of our driveway (on a slight incline) and then put it in drive. I went on Just Answer and they diagnosed it as the front axle being bad. I think you folks here might have even agreed. Anyway, I got an axle off Amazon, which some of you chastised me for. I had the axle replaced and the sound seemed to go away, only to come back a few months later. I remember when someone was like, "LOL ENJOY REPLACING IT AGAIN" and thought, "Fuck these internet assholes were right."
So I had my Your Mechanic guy come back out and check it out. He wasn't sure what it was but agreed that it might be the axle. He replaced the axle, only this time, the sound NEVER went away. I pretty much replaced another axle for no reason because you guys had that shit in my head. Fuckers. Anyway...
I was just rotating my tires and looked and saw this. I think the important part of the sound I'm describing is that it ONLY happens when I'm backing out on an incline - never any other time.
Those areas around whatever the fuck that is (looks like some bearing that might be broken) seem clean in a very dirty area of the car, like they've been moving. What is that?
My working theory is that when I park on an incline, the vehicle rocks back on those broken bearing looking things. Then when I put it in drive, they rock back. Could that be the real cause of the sound I'm hearing?