I was out driving with my wife yesterday, and while turing around on a small asphalt drive that had a sticky seal coat on it, I heard a load bang or pop with a resulting pop felt in the steering wheel.

Prior to the turning, my tires were complaining with a squeal (I was going about 2-3 MPH, yes it was that slow).

The only thing I could think it would be is a limited slip diff releasing the tension between the tires turning a different amount. I was really startled that it made such a loud noise.

Anyone else ever experience this?

 

I've also been startled at times by such noises from my TCH on an asphalt drive with a seal coating on it at work. I'm usually able to figure out that I had driven over a small to medium sized pebble or sweetgum tree ball while turning the wheels at the same time - which results in shooting the object across the parking lot with a loud report. Another possiblity: One day while driving my family's 2001 Prius in a parking garage, there was a bang and jerk in the steering wheel. Thinking a tire had blown out, I immediately stopped and got out to look around. In the end I found that I had merely driven over a 2-liter plastic bottle cap!

 

As there is no limit slip differential, the only cause could be some object sticking to tire with sticky seal coat, and then thrown into wheel well