Help! Squeaky Corners !

[Galaxy_Quest]

Hi guys,

 

Been a while since I have been on.

 

Background:We took the old gal in to a garage a while back. Apparantly the rubber bush mounts on the top of the suspension struts in the engine bay needed changing. At the time one was REALLY stuck. I remember seeing in a manual that it should be loosened using the hex head on a wratchet and a spanner ... NOT grabbing it from below and from the top at the same time. It can get damaged because of the torque / twisting force.

 

Well surprise surprise! The garage numpties raised it onto a ramp and as he said "we tried as hard as we could using the mole grips from below". At that time he was trying to convince me to change the suspension but we couldnt afford it at the time. I was concerned that they may have twisted the suspension strut. A little while after, we used to get an intermittent squeak.

 

Now a year later, there is a really loud squeak mainly from the passenger corner. We think its also coming from the drivers side too but not so much. Stopping, starting, in fact any movement and it sounds horrendously squeaky... like a really bad, old, creaky door.

 

Question: Im wondering...

 

- is it the same thing?

- is there a cheap quick fix I can do?

- what else could it be?

- how much to get properly fixed (or should I attempt myself) ?

 

Any advice MUCH appreciated guys. Thanks. :wacko:

[tiny]

Anti roll bar link arms very commonly cause creaking noises.

[Galaxy_Quest]

Hi Tiny,

 

Just spent a ridiculous amount of money at the last service... it was either that or bail out a failing UK financial institution.

 

Drop links were changed then. They tend to cause a rattle because of the give... just thinking about the creak... suspension? Rubber mounts?

[tiny]

I changed my drop links and within 2 weeks I had a horrible creaking so i changed the shocks and top mounts (pig of a job) and still had the creaking.

Second set of droplinks and hey presto silence! It seems some of the none OE drop links are of dubious quality, in response to one of my posts on the subject there were a few others on the forum that had the same issue.

 

Your description of a creaky door is absolutely spot on for this problem.

 

Why dont you try unbolting the link at one end (2 min job) and rocking the car to see if you still have the problem?

 

Ive been trying to use the search function to find my earlier post, but without much luck, if you have more time on your hands than I have at the moment you could try it.

 

Hope the above helps

Edited October 27, 2008 by tiny

[tiny]

Drop link creaking

 

Found it! I thought it was me who started this one but it turns out I only contributed.

All the same it makes interesting reading, theres a couple of us who had this issue very soon after fitting new links.