Yes another suspension noise thread
07-22-2006, 12:46 PM
#1
Yes another suspension noise thread
I'm getting two different noises. I would like to take care of them and replace struts and tires and do ONE alignment. After doing hours of research I'm getting conflicting information.
Tires: cheapest ones that sears sells
Sturts/shocks: kyb gr2 or tokico hp's ~ the back of my car floats around and no I'm not wasting money on illumina's. I have a 10 yr old fwd family sedan not a race car. From what I've read gr2's are stiffer than the hp's so I'll pick the gr2's.
Squeaking: I'm getting squeaking going over little bumps. People have told me its the mounts, strut bushings (i was told these cured a clicking noise, mine aren't clicking??), ball joints, and the front sway bar. So which is it. I don't plan on replacing everything.
Clunking/Crunching: I'm hearing sounds similar to what a 100 yr old wooden boat would make. It's extremely loud whether windows are up or down. Most people have said its the strut mounts, bearings, or spring insulators. BUT I only get this noise after rain events whereas most people tell me about they hear the noise after making a turn. Since it was raining last night as well as today, there's a 98% chance I'll hear this horrid noise. When its dry this noise is gone.
my previous car doesn't make any noise and rides fine its 17yrs old and has 20k more miles on it.
Upon inspection the only thing that I see is funky on my car are torn dust boots on the front. All I want are the noises gone and the struts replaced not a whole suspension overhaul.
Tires: cheapest ones that sears sells
Sturts/shocks: kyb gr2 or tokico hp's ~ the back of my car floats around and no I'm not wasting money on illumina's. I have a 10 yr old fwd family sedan not a race car. From what I've read gr2's are stiffer than the hp's so I'll pick the gr2's.
Squeaking: I'm getting squeaking going over little bumps. People have told me its the mounts, strut bushings (i was told these cured a clicking noise, mine aren't clicking??), ball joints, and the front sway bar. So which is it. I don't plan on replacing everything.
Clunking/Crunching: I'm hearing sounds similar to what a 100 yr old wooden boat would make. It's extremely loud whether windows are up or down. Most people have said its the strut mounts, bearings, or spring insulators. BUT I only get this noise after rain events whereas most people tell me about they hear the noise after making a turn. Since it was raining last night as well as today, there's a 98% chance I'll hear this horrid noise. When its dry this noise is gone.
my previous car doesn't make any noise and rides fine its 17yrs old and has 20k more miles on it.
Upon inspection the only thing that I see is funky on my car are torn dust boots on the front. All I want are the noises gone and the struts replaced not a whole suspension overhaul.
07-22-2006, 01:24 PM
#2
1. Which dust boots? Struts or CV axles?
2. You need to locate the squeaking....Japanese cars do not have stiff frames, so after an amount of time the body itself squeaks over small bumps. One of the most notorious squeaks is the hood latch squeaking when you go over small bumps. Grease up the latch/receiver to the hood and the door catches. If not that, it could be one of many things...bad strut, strut tower, etc....
3. Clunk: make sure control arm bolts are tight...clunk could also be bad CV joints, blown strut (right front OEM struts are nororious for going bad), etc.
2. You need to locate the squeaking....Japanese cars do not have stiff frames, so after an amount of time the body itself squeaks over small bumps. One of the most notorious squeaks is the hood latch squeaking when you go over small bumps. Grease up the latch/receiver to the hood and the door catches. If not that, it could be one of many things...bad strut, strut tower, etc....
3. Clunk: make sure control arm bolts are tight...clunk could also be bad CV joints, blown strut (right front OEM struts are nororious for going bad), etc.
07-22-2006, 02:01 PM
#3
why are you even wasting your time and money with aftermarket shocks. You might as well pick up some slightly used stock shocks, for close to nothing from someone on the board.
No need for any sort of performance suspension when your tires wont hack it anyway.
No need for any sort of performance suspension when your tires wont hack it anyway.
07-22-2006, 02:27 PM
#4
Dust boots for the front struts. My axles are only a year old from raxles.com. The noise was present before changing the axles. The squeaking is clearly from the suspension as I really only hear it when going slow and the windows open.
The aftermarket ones are cheeper than the oem one's from the stealership. No point in waisting time with someone elses worn out suspension. I want do this one time and one time only. I don't want to repeat history here. Kinda hard to find slightly used shocks on a 8-12 yr old car.
Originally Posted by sciff5
why are you even wasting your time and money with aftermarket shocks. You might as well pick up some slightly used stock shocks, for close to nothing from someone on the board.
No need for any sort of performance suspension when your tires wont hack it anyway.
No need for any sort of performance suspension when your tires wont hack it anyway.
07-22-2006, 06:38 PM
#5
Originally Posted by Batxel
Dust boots for the front struts. My axles are only a year old from raxles.com. The noise was present before changing the axles. The squeaking is clearly from the suspension as I really only hear it when going slow and the windows open.
Both noises could be caused by a single bad strut (especially the clunking).
The squeaking that comes from the hood latch sounds like it is coming from the front suspension. Trust me, I spent weeks tearing the suspension apart trying to find the noise and it ended up all I needed was a little grease on the hood latch
Could also be a dust shield rubbing the rotors, bad strut bearing, or bad wheel bearing causing a squeak over bumps. Again, though, a bad strut would make that noise as well....
08-08-2006, 01:12 AM
#6
squeaking over small bumps drove me nuts for ages. about 6 months after i swapped my stock suspension out for sprints and agx's the noise appeared. i was convinced the problem was strut mounts, so i changed them. they didn't look too worn, but since i had everything off by the time i saw this, i just went ahead and replaced them. problem solved, i thought.
a few weeks later the noise came back. so i replaced the strut bearings. same thing, about a month later the sound came back. earlier this winter i switched from agx/sprint to illumina/maxspeed, this was mainly because of the car simply being too low for crappy chicago roads and winters. i replaced the strut mounts and bearings with nissan OEM and hoped that the problem would go away, seeing as how it was a different strut/spring combo with all new parts.
a month later the noise reappeared. i'd just resigned to live with it. then i decided to get matt's LTB and urethane bushings. in the course of doing the install, i had to hose down a lot of the lower suspension with pb blaster to get the bolts off. i had some fitment problems, so nothing got installed that day. but i noticed that even though i had done nothing to the car, the noise went away for a week or two. this leads me to believe that the issue exists with the LCA bushings. i suppose that because after spraying them down or moving them outside of the normal operating range (as during strut/spring replacement) quiets everything down, the metal collar on the inside of the stock bushing just rubs against the LCA, making that noise. or perhaps it's the swaybar bushing? i noticed that the swaybar endlinks looked worn and pretty mashed up, so it could be that also.
this is conjecture on my part, and i am nowhere near as knowledgeble as other regulars in this forum (which seems like the last bastion of reason and knowledge on the .org). anyone care to comment?
a few weeks later the noise came back. so i replaced the strut bearings. same thing, about a month later the sound came back. earlier this winter i switched from agx/sprint to illumina/maxspeed, this was mainly because of the car simply being too low for crappy chicago roads and winters. i replaced the strut mounts and bearings with nissan OEM and hoped that the problem would go away, seeing as how it was a different strut/spring combo with all new parts.
a month later the noise reappeared. i'd just resigned to live with it. then i decided to get matt's LTB and urethane bushings. in the course of doing the install, i had to hose down a lot of the lower suspension with pb blaster to get the bolts off. i had some fitment problems, so nothing got installed that day. but i noticed that even though i had done nothing to the car, the noise went away for a week or two. this leads me to believe that the issue exists with the LCA bushings. i suppose that because after spraying them down or moving them outside of the normal operating range (as during strut/spring replacement) quiets everything down, the metal collar on the inside of the stock bushing just rubs against the LCA, making that noise. or perhaps it's the swaybar bushing? i noticed that the swaybar endlinks looked worn and pretty mashed up, so it could be that also.
this is conjecture on my part, and i am nowhere near as knowledgeble as other regulars in this forum (which seems like the last bastion of reason and knowledge on the .org). anyone care to comment?
08-22-2006, 05:09 PM
#8
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 28
I had a similar crunching noise that got louder as I sped up... I thought it to be the wheel bearing or something... ended up being the bearing in the passenger half shaft... it was really easy to replace in my opinion... there are a lot of things that it could possibly be though.
Good luck
Good luck
08-22-2006, 07:04 PM
#9
Originally Posted by dko
squeaking over small bumps drove me nuts for ages. about 6 months after i swapped my stock suspension out for sprints and agx's the noise appeared. i was convinced the problem was strut mounts, so i changed them. they didn't look too worn, but since i had everything off by the time i saw this, i just went ahead and replaced them. problem solved, i thought.
a few weeks later the noise came back. so i replaced the strut bearings. same thing, about a month later the sound came back. earlier this winter i switched from agx/sprint to illumina/maxspeed, this was mainly because of the car simply being too low for crappy chicago roads and winters. i replaced the strut mounts and bearings with nissan OEM and hoped that the problem would go away, seeing as how it was a different strut/spring combo with all new parts.
a month later the noise reappeared. i'd just resigned to live with it. then i decided to get matt's LTB and urethane bushings. in the course of doing the install, i had to hose down a lot of the lower suspension with pb blaster to get the bolts off. i had some fitment problems, so nothing got installed that day. but i noticed that even though i had done nothing to the car, the noise went away for a week or two. this leads me to believe that the issue exists with the LCA bushings. i suppose that because after spraying them down or moving them outside of the normal operating range (as during strut/spring replacement) quiets everything down, the metal collar on the inside of the stock bushing just rubs against the LCA, making that noise. or perhaps it's the swaybar bushing? i noticed that the swaybar endlinks looked worn and pretty mashed up, so it could be that also.
this is conjecture on my part, and i am nowhere near as knowledgeble as other regulars in this forum (which seems like the last bastion of reason and knowledge on the .org). anyone care to comment?
a few weeks later the noise came back. so i replaced the strut bearings. same thing, about a month later the sound came back. earlier this winter i switched from agx/sprint to illumina/maxspeed, this was mainly because of the car simply being too low for crappy chicago roads and winters. i replaced the strut mounts and bearings with nissan OEM and hoped that the problem would go away, seeing as how it was a different strut/spring combo with all new parts.
a month later the noise reappeared. i'd just resigned to live with it. then i decided to get matt's LTB and urethane bushings. in the course of doing the install, i had to hose down a lot of the lower suspension with pb blaster to get the bolts off. i had some fitment problems, so nothing got installed that day. but i noticed that even though i had done nothing to the car, the noise went away for a week or two. this leads me to believe that the issue exists with the LCA bushings. i suppose that because after spraying them down or moving them outside of the normal operating range (as during strut/spring replacement) quiets everything down, the metal collar on the inside of the stock bushing just rubs against the LCA, making that noise. or perhaps it's the swaybar bushing? i noticed that the swaybar endlinks looked worn and pretty mashed up, so it could be that also.
this is conjecture on my part, and i am nowhere near as knowledgeble as other regulars in this forum (which seems like the last bastion of reason and knowledge on the .org). anyone care to comment?
good call though
08-25-2006, 03:49 AM
#10
Newbie - Just Registered
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 14
I just recently swaped out my stock se suspension for tokico illumina on eibach ground control coilovers.. the front isperfectly fine but the back..I dont kno how the set up goes bushing wise....I have the (top down) nut.washer.bushining.strutmount.bushing.coil cover.coil. sleeve. then strut. the car clunk like metal to metal but i cant see where
08-25-2006, 07:06 PM
#11
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 21
I just noticed a grinding noise coming from the rear driver side.
It sounds like it is making contact metal on metal for a short length in the rotation because it stops and starts faster when I increase speed.
From what I could tell braking had little or no effect on the sound.
Any ideas about what it could be?
It sounds like it is making contact metal on metal for a short length in the rotation because it stops and starts faster when I increase speed.
From what I could tell braking had little or no effect on the sound.
Any ideas about what it could be?
08-25-2006, 08:37 PM
#12
Originally Posted by olsona5
I just noticed a grinding noise coming from the rear driver side.
It sounds like it is making contact metal on metal for a short length in the rotation because it stops and starts faster when I increase speed.
From what I could tell braking had little or no effect on the sound.
Any ideas about what it could be?
It sounds like it is making contact metal on metal for a short length in the rotation because it stops and starts faster when I increase speed.
From what I could tell braking had little or no effect on the sound.
Any ideas about what it could be?
2. check the brake pads to make sure the wear is fine
3. In the future, don't threadjack other people's threads to ask a question!
08-28-2006, 06:29 AM
#13
So all my noises were coming from the end links (clunking/crunching/squeeking). I got nissan strut bearing, nissan front dust boots, trw rear dust boots, trw end link kits from advanced auto ($30 for both sides), tokico hp's, and kumho escta hp4. I orignially had sumitomo srioxn 4's(sp?) which were horrible in the rain and even worse in the snow. It feels like a new car now. I was gonna do the LCA's too but I didn't have big enuff sockets at the time so I just did the end links and took it for test drive and all is well. I'll do the LCA's next time I do something else that requries an alignment.
08-28-2006, 10:57 AM
#14
Originally Posted by irish44j
that's a good possibility too. Never thought of it, but if the rubber bushing is partially torn or perhaps the LCA nut that attaches it to the bush pin link is loose, that could most definitely cause some squeaking. I probably never thought of it since I've had Stage1/Stage2 LTB's on for a few years now, and my bushings are poly
good call though
good call though
well the verdict is that it is not the LCA bushings. i replaced them with the polys and the noise is still there. i thought it might have been the endlinks on the sway bar, but i'm leaning towards no.
this is still driving me crazy. i've got a veritible concerto coming out of my front end.
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