Creaking from rear suspension
 

Hopefully you guys can help give me some ideas on where to look. I currently am experiencing a creaking noise in the rear suspension on compression/rebound and I can hear it when turning as well. It can get pretty intense if I'm making a tight corner, especially if there are bumps.

I have: Steeda sport springs, Fays2 watts link, Koni Yellows.

The car feels fine, but the noise is unnerving. It also seems like when I start driving everything is quiet, then once I've been driving for a while (say 10-15 minutes) and I've thrown a few corners into the mix the noise starts to pick up and stays with me.

When it's happening sometimes I feel like I can get a bit of the creaking noise to occur when I load/unload the car lightly, like while creeping along in traffic in 2nd gear.

Because everything feels good I am inclined to think it might just be a bushing that needs grease (sway bar, control arm maybe) but I'd like to get some opinions from you guys. I'm going to get under the car on Saturday to take a look at everything and hopefully figure it out.

Did you torque the suspension bits loaded or unloaded when installing?

I would try loosening and retorqueing everything with the suspension loaded.

Its all torqued loaded. I will recheck it all Saturday but I'm pretty sure its fine. Just hoping its a bushing issue that I can isolate easily.

It's the watts link. I have the same issue. Grease the spherical bearings, which will help reduce the creaking.

If it's that simple, awesome. I'll attempt to isolate the sound on Saturday. Will probably pick up some lithium grease spray as well.

Picked up some white lithium grease spray today from NAPA and crawled under the car. Just spraying the bearings got rid of the creaking.

I was about to say that. Mine did the same thing on my old car.

Few things I did to make sure it did not happen a second time. I wore the original rod bearings due to me not doing things right.

First thing first, when installing I use lithium grease on the bearings, I rotated the bearings by hand while greasing them. This made sure the grease got into the bearings.

Another thing I noticed is that the passenger side pickup point for the axle takes away from the watts geometry. About 1/4 worth of hardened washers took care of that.

Grease the o-rings as well. before install.

Finlay liberal coating once a month on the bearings keeps them quiet and wear free.

One of the things I wanted to do to mine is buy the whiteline polyurethane bearing cups, they actually allow you to hold some grease in unlike the O rings and allow for greater movement, eliminating the o-rings as well as the washers.

Under no circumstances you should use wd-40 on the bearings, I still have a set of severely worn bearings (3 years of use) in my garage that made the suspension sound like it had 500k miles on it. They did not fail in any way but due to lubrication the plastic races were consumed allowing the bearing to move less than 1/2 a mill. Another alternative it to replace the outer rod bearings with ones that are made of polyurethane.

Another thing is do not cut the bump stops, they will not help if your bottoming out.

Good luck.

Thanks. I fear I may have worn the rod ends out already as they are making noise again and the spray grease doesn't seem to help. I'm going to do some searching this weekend or next to see if I can actually isolate the noise. It's a metal-to-metal clanking that almost makes me think it's something other than the watts link, so I'll look around.

Ultimately I'm just going to take it back to my Mustang shop and have them check everything for me. I tried to futz with the geometry once and gave up.

Its probably the bearings. Call jim and order a set of rod end bearings. The ball bearings in the propeller are sealed so they should not be a problem.

The major thing for me was pre-lubing them before install and making sure there was no binding in the rod end on the passenger side of the axle. Also take a tape measure and measure out from rim lip to rim lip and divide by two. That is your center, make sure the axle is centered. Also tighten the bearings with the weight of the car.

Believe it or not, a set of ramps and a breaker bar/torque wrench/adjustable wrench as well as a soft jawed vice is all you need. Possibly a tube to extend leverage of the torque wrench depending on your strength. Also pay attention to the torque settings, use blue locktight on the threads.

Properly greased what is the life typical lifespan of the bearings on a DD/Track car?

I believe they can last at least 2 years if maintained. Depends on your climate, dirt/sand/salt will accelerate the wear if you don't cover them in lithium grease. Greasing them is only part of the deal though, correcting geometry to allow the suspension to move without binding is also key.

EDIT: I would also look for a set of bearing covers. Check out what whiteline does with theirs. I feel its a superior way to protect the bearings. http://www.importimageracing.com/whi...san-240sx.html

There's got to be a relatively simple way to make a weatherproof cover that has enough range of motion to properly protect the bearings. Might look silly, but...

Guess I'll slather some grease on there when I install it tomorrow. Hopefully that'll keep it from squeaking for a while

So I made the mistake of driving the 5.0 to work today. It sounds god awful. It creaks and moans, pops and cracks over every little bump in the pavement. It's almost constant. I almost don't believe a rod end can sound like this... it's LOUD.

Not what I want to hear lol this is my DD. I've been wondering if its possible to get greasable rod ends, kind of like the lca's that have the grease fitting on them so you can just take a grease gun and shoot some into it. :dunno: might be useful. Mine is very quiet except for the thunk going over some speedbumps (of course only 4 days old). Still need to grease the tops of the bumpstops to check. Going to move my axle over since its off 1/4 of an inch center this week when I can get onto a drive on lift.

Something similar to this maybe?? idk

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/...-w-rod-end.jpg

Yeah, it sucks. Parking the car until Sunday to take a look at it. Thankfully I have the S2000 to fall back on.

We'll see if I bother fixing it or if I just get a GT500 or M3.

You're going through cars like candy on halloween ;) very good candy at that haha

Haven't had a chance to drive a gt500, dealership said no to a 22 year old wanting to take one out haha. I was allowed to take out an M3 tho ('08, I've always wanted an M3, still want an E46 as a project car), steering and gearbox felt great, wasn't a fan of the clutch or throttle. I like a little stiffer/mechanical feel to it.

Not sure what to do at this point. I like the GT500 but I think one s197 chassis is enough for me. E92... I like them a lot but the change would be refinement. Performance would be about the same as where I'm at now. Granted a little bit of BMW refinement would be nice. The S2000 is fairly raw and the 5.0 is too with where I have it now. I should just shut up and fix it.

Going to look at it on Sunday. If its something easy and I feel like doing it myself I will, otherwise it's going to my local Mustang shop.

I do think I want to pull the LCAs off and put the stockers back on, though, because I have way, way too much gear whine with the Steedas.

If you find dust boots for the rod ends, please post up your source/solution. I'm at the same point with my watts link