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Outrageous squeak from the front left corner

4K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  Klutch 
#1 ·
Just got back home from this year's trip, and in the past few days Jane has developed a pretty outrageous squeak from the front left (driver's) corner.

It seems to only show up when the suspension is less loaded. If I stop the car and lean on the corner a few times, it will squeak and then settle and won't squeak for a long time. I think that when I am driving 80+ MPH, the front end of the car gets a little light (very windy in eastern NM and west TX). Then when I stop to get gas or something, every little turn or bump makes it squeak really loudly. Maybe the suspension is less compressed at that time? Then I lean on it and it stops squeaking, until the front end gets lifted up by wind again.

The squeak sounds very much like rubber, not metal-on-metal. It sounds loudest to me in the shock tower so probably somewhere in the vicinity of the spring? What could be squeaking like this, and is there any other area of the suspension in particular that I should be checking up on?

For reference, suspension components installed (all 2-3 yrs old except for one piece):
- Eaton GT coil springs, stock rubber insulator
- OT roller spring perches
- SoT adjustable strut rods
- OT blueprinted UCA
- Stock Moog LCA
- Bilstein street shocks
- 1&1/8" sway bar, poly bushings (possibly 20 years old)
 
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#2 ·
You have a quality setup there. When was the last time you greased the poly sway bar bushings?
Could it be the lower arm? You don't have much stuff that that would squeek.....
 
#3 ·
Yep, sway bar or upper control arms.

Mine was doing that at one point and I sprayed some lithium grease in there, it took about 20 miles of moving it around and it went away.
 
#6 ·
I will grease everything, guess I just figured it should be better off than this as everything was last greased 10,000 miles ago. Glad it's just all standard stuff to check, nothing catastrophic.
 
#7 ·
Can the rubber spring insulator cause a squeak? Not sure. I am just guessing since you say everything was greased 10,000 miles ago. Plus you describe the sound coming from there.

But, after you grease everything and it is still there it is time to remove the spring. Like Woodchuck said. It could also be the rubber on the perch.

As a side note. My bumper bracket arm was a little loose. It also gave an annoying squeak. I know you said it is not a metal sound but easy to check.
 
#11 ·
I think Petri wanted to see Texas.

John
 
#9 ·
My Mazda6 recently started squeaking a lot...in the case of that car though, my shocks are pretty well worn out...so its springs or spring isolators that is doing it since springs are now taking all the bumps that the shocks used to absorb(I have put off replacing the shocks just because I dont feel like fooling with the front struts right at the moment...of course not replacing the shocks causes other problems on that car...like tire cupping so I wont be able to put it off much longer)
 
#10 ·
Kelly: Keep in mind that when these cars were new, Ford service intervals were 6 months or 6000 miles and included chassis lube. My guess is that your upper control arms are dry and need grease. Do you have the 90 degree zerk fittings at the ends of the upper control arm bushings? If not, NPD and others sell a kit with extended 90 degree fittings and a specialized tool to install them in the car. Here's a link:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sdk-374714-sk
 
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#12 ·
Oh man, for some reason I thought they were 15,000 mile intervals! Well, I'll grease everything.

Today is a no-squeaking day so I may have to wait to test everything on the next super windy day on the interstate... :shrug:
 
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