What are the sings of worn out control arm bushings? Besides the squeak. I have a noise in the front end, that happens when I do a hard start or if I power brake it in the driveway and let off of the brake and the front end of the car lifts. I get the noise both going up and down. It's hard to describe but it definitely a bang or a large thud. Drives fine, steers fine, no noises or rattles while driving. I rebuilt the front end about 2000 miles ago but didn't replace the upper control arm bushings. I think I'm paying for that now. Do you think I'm on the right track?
1st, start by not powerbraking in the driveway...half of the noise will go away By the way, where did you get the rotating lathe thingy for your signature? I like it!
i would jack the car up and see if you can reproduce it by pulling on the tire. it could be the a arm bushing or a spring seat or a bad ball joint maybe even a broken shock, how are the wheel bearings. lots of things go thud when they break in the front end.
New ball joints, new lower control arms, new shocks, I checked the wheels bearing, they were a little loose so I tightened them and still have the noise. The front end is tight as far as driving it goes, no shimmies or shakes, just the thud as the suspension gets unloaded then reloaded. I can make the noise happen if i bounce the car violently by grabbing the fender. I may try to grease the control arm and see if that makes it any better. If it does then that may be what I'm looking at. (Scooper) that would be a "3 jaw chuck" I stole it off of another Message board that I visit.
Russ, used to work with them, know exactly what it is. That is why I asked. But back on thread...I had the same thing happen on mine, and it was worn shocks. An easy $40 job, replace and drive on. But, your problem could be more involved. That was just my experience...after I searched over the entire system and could not find any play. Mine was mostly noisy going up and down my driveway (that little 1" bump on the way up). Fought with it for a few weeks, ended up replacing lots of parts, then tried the shocks out of desperation, and VOILA, no more noise!
even if they are new, id still check them. i got a set of bad upper ball joints once, they were good when i installed them and for about a month. i installed and lubed them correctly, the casing on them actually split after the month.I also had a bad idler arm job done by a tire shop that insisted i needed one. found the bolt had not been keyed and the end of the steering arm was coming off of the idler arm. repaired that one myself. also, i have seen new shocks split off of the welds for the bottom bolts. just a thought. you might also try turning all of the linkage back and forth to check it for play and where its coming from. hope any of this is of any help.
Check the whole front end. You be supprised what gets worn. Those upper controll bushings do get noisy. They don't always squeek either. They can produce thud sounds. They are also some of the more difficult things to diagnose under there. Changing them really isn't too hard with the right tools, just time consuming. Once you have the arm off you get inclined to clean it, maybe sand blast it, paint it etc.. The shock is already out so maybe put a new one.. Saddle/perch don't look so hot now.. and it is out..
I'm surprised no body mentioned this but I would check your motor mounts. Leave the hood up and power brake it then see if the engine moves and how much.
I'm surprised no one mentioned the fact the thread is from 2006...even if the squeak wasn't fixed I bet all those parts need replacing by now...
Actually it's probably better that so many have a first instinct to help somebody out instead of worrying about dredging up old posts...probably lot's of folks who missed out on it first go round or don't know what search terms to use...
