I have a 2002 Bravada AWD, completely stock. It has aftermarket Moog lower Ball Joints (before I bought the car), new generic upper ball joints, duralast outer tie rods (about 2 years old - greased and in good condition), and new generic sway bar end links. The SBELs and Upper BJs were recently done after failing a PA inspection. I had the dealership also do an oil change while installing the upper bjs and sbels and specifically asked them to double check that everything was greased. When I got the car back the squeak that it had been developing was suddenly horrible. After some investigating I found that they didn't grease any of the SBELs, or upper BJs. I managed to do them myself. When I attempted to add grease to the lower BJs, they would not take any grease. The gun acted like it was jammed. I pushed the little "bb" valve in with a tiny screw driver and tried again to no avail. They simply will not take any grease. Every zerk fitting I could reach has been greased except the lower BJs because they won't take any grease.
Now to the reason for my post.
Since I've gotten it back from the dealer: It squeaks if you simply push on the side of the car sitting still. It squeaks like heck if you turn the wheel or go over a bump. Any body roll or turning of the wheel at all results in a squeak. My question is this: Is it possible that the lower ball joints could be the source of the squeak? Is there something I can do to get them to take grease?
I didn't try to grease them with front end off the ground (I may do so this weekend), but I'm not hopeful that will correct the problem. I did spend about a half an hour spraying virtually every moving part of the front suspension with WD40's Penetrating Oil, including sway bar bushings and the boots of every joint - in case it was something rubber. No change whatsoever. I will be doing the passenger side wheel bearing and CV shaft in the next week or two, if I haven't solved the grease problem by then I'll try pulling the zerk fitting out and make sure it's clean - other than that, what should I be trying?
Now to the reason for my post.
Since I've gotten it back from the dealer: It squeaks if you simply push on the side of the car sitting still. It squeaks like heck if you turn the wheel or go over a bump. Any body roll or turning of the wheel at all results in a squeak. My question is this: Is it possible that the lower ball joints could be the source of the squeak? Is there something I can do to get them to take grease?
I didn't try to grease them with front end off the ground (I may do so this weekend), but I'm not hopeful that will correct the problem. I did spend about a half an hour spraying virtually every moving part of the front suspension with WD40's Penetrating Oil, including sway bar bushings and the boots of every joint - in case it was something rubber. No change whatsoever. I will be doing the passenger side wheel bearing and CV shaft in the next week or two, if I haven't solved the grease problem by then I'll try pulling the zerk fitting out and make sure it's clean - other than that, what should I be trying?