Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Lately been noticing a gentle, repetitive (same rate as the tires are turning) rubbing sound and feeling in the steering wheel when I turn right only. Not a loud metallic grinding noise, and not a solid clunking like a shot U-joint or CV joint.

My first thought was front left wheel bearing, but no detectable play when I jack it up and do the grab/shake with hands at the 12 and 6 position. But perhaps my uncalibrated hands are not sensitive enough. A small bit of play when the grab/shake is at the 9 and 3 position, but judging from the location of the associated bonking noise, I think it is just play in the steering. And when I spin the front wheels off the ground (2WD), they spin quite freely with no nasty scraping sounds.

I'm running stock suspension with Kumho 235/75/15 that seem nowhere near close to rubbing anywhere. Also, noise can occur at fairly minor turn rates, and seems mainly to occur when the left side of the vehicle is loaded, like when going around a cloverleaf. Again, I thought wheel bearing, but I'm open to ideas from those in the know.

It is a fairly minor thing right now (my wife didn't even notice it until I pointed it out to her), but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and all that.

Any bright ideas?

did you check the bushings in the sway bar? they are just as old as the van, and I have yet to see them come over and be ok, that gives a clunky sound and you usually cant see any rub marks to indicate where they are breaking down, Grab your front sway bar and give it a really good pull, or even put your feet on it to see if there is movement on the front and slop on the sides... Main sway bar bushing are cheap, $25/set for energy suspension bushings

It's definitely in time with the wheels rotating; would worn bushings affect wheel rotation like that? Or would they make a single "clunk-clunk" as they load and unload when entering and exitting a turn?

The sway bar noise is when going over uneven ground and is a clunking not a rotational noise.
Its going to be hard to figure out what the problem is without actually hearing the noise but you need to check eveything that turns on the side where the noise is comeing from.
Check the inside edge of the brake rotor for corrosion and anything between it and the dust sheild.
Look around the C.V boots to check for split boots as there may be some dirt/corrosion causeing a noise when turning.
Have you had it in 4WD lately?Sometimes the actuator on the front diff can not deselect complely and can cause a noise.Try going in to 4WD again and back in to 2WD and see if the noise goes.
Hope this help
Good luck