Good morning TMS,

I am back with now a worse steering creak than before. I thought I solved this issue but this morning when I pulled into work I was shocked at how loud and consistent it has become.

This sound now comes from both directions and can be felt in the wheel as I turn. When driving its loud. When parked, while running the slower the turn the more prominent it becomes. When parked, not running and you jerk the wheel left to right you can hear it as well.

I have attached a recording of the sound to better help explain what I am hearing.

Thanks in advance as this has become very frustrating!

New A-amr
New Ball Joints
New Inner/Outer/Rack
New fluid in Rack

Thoughts?

 

Struts or strut mounts are all that's ostensibly left. Everything else is new, seems. Don't think the sway bar linkage would have much of anything to do with it, but those links are still a possible. Maybe the spring perch rubbers?

 

Hello Houtex,

I should have added that this was present during and after the install of a brand new Roush Stage 2 with brand new strut mounts (GT-500 upgrade). A few weekends ago I installed and upgraded to a brand new Pedder's Coil-over system. Each kit had new sway bar links as well. So with that said the struts and strut mounts have been new twice over and the sound still present. If I think about it the only movable parts that are not new are the u-joints in the steering column shaft. The Rag joint looks brand new and the sound is clearly on the outside.

Its so very strange that I haven't tracked this down....

Thanks for the feedback,

 

Do you have anyone who can lend another set of hands? Might help to have someone turn the wheel while you get down by the wheels and listen for where it's coming from. Maybe record a video with your phone and see where it gets the loudest. Other than that, I would check everything is torqued to spec (not overtightened) and anything that needs lubrication has grease

 

Good afternoon Cavero,

Thanks for the feedback. I can only managed to get an external look at things with another turning the wheel. Car sits too low for anyone to be under...

I believe you might be on to something about torque. I set everything to the listed value but that doesn't mean my torque wrench is accurate. Possible something, like the ball joint is over torqued or under torqued.

Thanks and keep the suggestions coming,

 

Get it on an alignment rack and be under it as someone turns the wheel. That'll show (sound?) where things are really quick. Car would need to be at ride hight, and an alignment rack will allow that and still allow the wheels to turn.

 

To my dismay and aggravation I believe I found the culprit. I was able to reach up under it while my wife turned the wheel. With my hand on either side inner tie rod I can feel the groan and creak as she turns. This is upsetting because I just replaced the entire rack with new inner's. Granted it was a re-man from Ford but still erks me!

I am going to research this some and find out my options.

Stay tuned,

 

Did a little more searching and came across others with similar issues with their outer tie-rods. While I knew mine were new and aftermarket (QA1 Bump-steer kits) I had to take a look. Shot both heim-joints with some WD and wham, no more groan or creak. Now the next question is whether or not this will be permanent or if I really have an issue with one or both of the joints?

 

WD40? Isn't that a de-greaser no?
Do your outer tie-rods have a valve to pump grease into them?
I would definitely grease them up with white grease or something better than WD....

Glad you found the issue tho.

 

You may also find that the WD-40 will attract the sand and other crud and you may have bigger problems. I would call QA1 directly but I believe that heim- joints do not need lubrication. You may have over tightened them and deformed the inner sphere. This would cause a bind and most likely some noise. I worked on a lot of race cars that had many heim- joint and never lubricated any of them.

 

Yeah I've been running the same QA1 Heim joints on my car since 08 and I've never lubricated them. I'd wipe off the WD 40 as much as you can, it's going to make dirt stick.

 

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the feedback and I do agree that there is an underlying issue. The WD-40 was more of way to eliminate the guess work. Now that I know its one of the Heim Joints I can move forward from there.

As far as over tightening goes, I torqued to exact specifications that came with my kit. So Unless the alignment shop messed with it this should not have been the case. I happen to have two sets of Steeda bumper steer kits where I may be able to use the Heim Joint portion of the kits to get a working set. My only grip to this is that the Steeda set failed on the tapered end during install and the other is for a previous generation of Mustang so I am not sure it would thread into the QA1 collar.

I at least have a direction to work with for a resolution. Worst case scenario I have to buy another kits. I bought mine from LMR and they have always helped with getting any issues corrected.

Thanks,

 

If you separate the tie rod from the spindle you should be able to move the center of the Heim-joint very easily. There should be very little resistance. If they do not move with little effort the there is a problem with them. I would think that if you were to call QA1 directly that they would sell you just the heims. They are a great company. I have felt with them for a long time.
Here is a link to there website. Should be an easy fix.


https://www.qa1.net/

 

Update:

Been keeping an eye on this since my last update. As of this message all seems good! Jim B I did take off both sides and thoroughly inspected them both and no resistance on either side. Kind of strange as the sound it was making was loud and could be felt. Was certain I'd see damage!! Since the rinsing in WD (which I've cleaned off several times) they work smoothly and make no noise.

I'll keep an eye on things but feel this might be finally resolved.

Cheers,

Nemi