My god, it's full of squeaks!

[Shdwdrgn]

Please help before I go mad... I replaced the shocks and struts in June with the regular Bilstein parts, but ever since then the front end squeaks on both sides at every little bump and roll in the road. Someone gave me a good suggestion to pull the cap off the rubber mounting point for the anti-sway bar and grease it up -- but unfortunately no luck. I also tried spraying some WD40 around the four pivot bolts of the upper and lower control arms hoping to get some temporary change to lead me to the problem, but nope.

So far I've had no luck pinpointing where exactly the sound is coming from. I can make it squeak a little by bouncing on the front end, but it doesn't make any noise when I have the wheel off and pry on the spring to move the suspension. I understand replacing the struts has changed the suspension profile so something is sitting differently, which should narrow down the possible areas, but I'm having no luck with this.

Any other ideas?

 

[Mooseman]

It probably is your A arm bushings. How old are they?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Both sets have been replaced in the last 5 years. Just did the uppers last year or the year before (sheesh time flies), and the lowers were replaced sometime since 2020.

 

[Mooseman]

You will need someone to assist you to bounce the truck while you try to listen and pinpoint it.

When you replaced the A-arms, you did tighten only with weight on them and at ride height? If you tightened them while they were at full droop, the bushings could have separated from their cans with the last full droop to ride height move when you installed the struts.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Wouldn't that have caused noises at the time I replaced the control arms, though? Both sets have had a lot of miles put on them and never made a sound until I changed the struts, but the truck has been up on jacks several times since then, including when I changed out the brakes earlier this year.

Probably worth backing off the bolts and trying to tighten again. The only way I can think of to tighten them "at ride height" is to put a jack under the steering knuckle. Otherwise I can't really get to the bolts without the wheel being off.

 

[Mooseman]

That would work. As long as you get the weight on the arms, that should work. Maybe get a "hefty" friend to sit in the truck to add a little more weight and bring down the truck a little more.

If the bushings are squeaking, this might change the sound of it, which would tell us we're on the right track.

That's the only thing I can think of in the front suspension that would cause squeaking like that unless your ball joints are totally dry.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yeah someone else mentioned the ball joints, so I greased everything in the area that I could find a fitting on.

 

[Mike534x]

I have that same problem with the TB. No squeak, and now it does once everything was replaced on the front end. My only guess is that it could be the rubber mounts used for the struts, if everything else is greased up it could be that, or the front cab mounts. For the hell of it, maybe jack up the front end, loosen the bolts for the upper control arms and spray some silicone spray/grease around the bushings and tighten it back up once leveled and see if that helps any?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Sorry I hadn't had a chance to get back here this week... However I do have *some* findings to report. Last weekend I jacked up both sides, put a floor jack under the lower arm and jacked up until the truck lifted off the jack stand (so basically putting every thing in the same position as when the full weight of the truck is on the wheels). The I loosened each of the four control arm bolts, hit them with a spray of WD40, and re-tightened.

Well the squeaks are still there, but greatly reduced, so that's progress! I suspect I would have gotten better results if I have loosened BOTH bolts on each control arm at the same time to allow the full control arm to relax into the new position. Also I think once the bolts were loose, I should have bounced the whole truck on top of the jack to further ensure the rubber bushings had a chance to twist around -- so maybe I'll just loosen all four at once.

Definitely on the right track here though, and just from the first round the noise has subsided enough that it's not driving me completely bonkers, so I think one more attempt at it will hopefully get it "close enough". I've also been hoping for driving through a good heavy rain to help flush out any dust in the bushings that might be contributing to the noise, but alas this time of year we're lucky to get much of anything. Perhaps after driving through the snow this Winter it will be all settled in by next year.

 

[barneygarrett10]

Worth checking the spring isolators first — those rubber pads the coil spring actually sits on, top and bottom. Easy to reuse them when pulling struts apart and not notice they've gone hard or dry, and the spring rotates slightly as it compresses under load, which is exactly when you'd hear it. Ran through the other suspects in a write-up here: https://haulandtrail.com/maintenance-repair/front-suspension-squeak-after-strut-swap/

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Unfortunately I got all new pieces when I changed these out, and here we are a year later and they're still squeaking while going down the road. I'll check your post though.