New prob - Grind/knock when making sharp turn

[salmonz]

This problem is driving me nuts with my '07 Yaris Sedan... Each time I turn into my driveway there's a brief grind/knock from the front end.

Here's some things I've noticed/haven't noticed:
1. Turning sharply at 90 degrees and wide turning 90 degrees produces noise grind/knock.
2. I can feel it in the floor a bit.
3. Noise isn't so bad when it's raining/wet outside.
4. Sometimes over dips in the road going straight I hear the same noise.
5. Going over large bumps (i.e. large speed bump) does NOT re-produce noise.
6. Going over medium bumps while applying the brake somewhat produces the noise.
7. Turning left and right in park or neutral does NOT re-produce noise.

Note, I recently got new steel rims (15in) and new tires, so this could be cancelled out. I have 97k on the car, original brakes/rotors, original struts/springs.

What could this be?

[Stevo_Echohb05]

Check the bolts holding on your control arms (tables). While you've got it in the air I'd look at everything else but there's not much there.

[jambo101]

Get the car up on a lift and check the control arm bushings..I had the same problem on my 01 Echo and thats what it turned out to be, the bushings and the control arm came as a complete unit.

[salmonz]

I resolved the issue by spraying penetrating oil on the control arm bushings and once that didn't work, I sprayed down beneath the floor inside the car of the intermediate control shaft of the steering column. Worked! No noise and the car is running beautiful. (Until the pen oil dries out or I go for a long test drive).

[Riick]

Intermediate shaft lube is what Toyota has come up with for the Gen 3 Avalons.
You want to "inject" some lithium or moly grease for a more permanent fix.

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