Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewwynn
Have somebody launch the car while you are standing at each corner to confirm which is squeaking.
Then see if pushing the bumper can reproduce.
I've seen the issue quite recently on XO and it was a suspension bolt on the tension strut was loose. Likely because the installer never torqued to the spec of something like 165 ft·lb (250 N·m).
You can creep and stab the brakes to get the front end dipb better than human push on the bumper.
That test exercises the ball joints more than the bushings.
My suspicion is the outer tie rod dive that's affected by steering and dropping to the ground. (but so is main ball joint among others)
–awr–
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Thanks Andrew. I’ll get my wife to help me troubleshoot when I get home later this week. It takes a few blocks for the creaking noise to “warm up” it seems. On the drive to the airport this am she was quiet until I’d gone three-ish blocks from my house, then sure enough the creaking started. 90% of it happens as I first start accelerating from a stop. No matter how gently. Only occasionally on stopping, amd I can’t get it to do it when bouncing the front of the car up and down by pushing on the bumper. I can get it to make the noise intermittently when I kick the top of the tire with a lot of force.
My leading hypothesis is that I failed to torque the new lower arms several months ago with the suspension compressed enough. The car was on the lift so I put a floor jack under the hub and jacked until it got light on that corner of the lift. I have a “new” hub completed (new ball joint and bearing) and I’ll redo that lower arm install and torque when I put the hub in next week.
The uppers are poly and don’t need to be compressed when torqued, according to polyflex. The central bushings is lubed up though and maybe I didn’t get it fully covered? I was in a hurry.
Beyond that I wonder if it could be the ball joint itself? Stripped fasteners on these are the reason I built and am swapping in new carriers/hubs. I already swapped in the right hub and the old ball joint was absolutely floppy and had no tension left. It doesn’t seem like a failure mode in this piece would make noise tho.
I don’t want to throw parts at it since the struts and left tie rod are all within 8 months old, so I’ll swap the hub in next week, check/re-tourque everything, and do a good general integrity check.
I wonder if there is anyway the rack could be making the noise I’m hearing? I’ll check it’s fasteners too, if I can get to them without dropping the stiffener.