Can't Find a Persistent Squeek

[jkexplorer]

The Explorer has developed a pesistent squeek, I believe somewhere in the suspension. Bouncing the car up and down generates this squeek. I crawled under the car to listen, but was not able to pin it down. It seems to be coming from around the shock absorber area. Can the shock produce a squeeking sound? The shocks are original with about 60k miles on them. No sign of fluid leakage on the shocks. Any suggestions/ recommendations are appreciated!!!

Thank you,

 

[jayhawkexplorer]

Shocks could definitely be bad. Other possible culprits are the sway bar bushings and the torsion bar adjusters.

 

[jkexplorer]

Thank you for your response. It's possible that the shocks after 60k have outlived their usefulnesss. However when the shocks go bad, is it typical for them to make a squeeking sound?

 

[jamester_a]

Control arm bushings develop squeeks often..

I had a front end squeek that drove me crazy and was most noticeable when the front end of my exploder was "walking" over parking lot speed bumps. It turned out to be one of the bushings on a lower control arm. A couple of squirts of graphite spray and then wd40 spray (to help the graphite get into the joint) and the noise was gone. That was two years ago.

If you have a partner, get him or her to bounce the front end then you get down underneath with a long screw driver or a length of 1/4 or 3/8 hose and put one end to your ear and the other on suspected problem areas like control upper/lower bushings, innner/outer tie rods, ball joints, sway bar bushings, torsion pads (although they are back a bit), etc...,

Or just get out the wd40 and blast one or two candidate spots at a time, wait for it to soak in (maybe go for a drive) then retest. You may get lucky.

Good luck.

- James

The Explorer has developed a pesistent squeek, I believe somewhere in the suspension. Bouncing the car up and down generates this squeek. I crawled under the car to listen, but was not able to pin it down. It seems to be coming from around the shock absorber area. Can the shock produce a squeeking sound? The shocks are original with about 60k miles on them. No sign of fluid leakage on the shocks. Any suggestions/ recommendations are appreciated!!!

Thank you,

 

[jkexplorer]

Thanks!!!

jayhawker & jamester_a - Thanks for the advice. I think I'll just start by blasting everything with WD40 and see where it gets me. Hopefully that'll solve the problem. If not I guess I'll have to move to some more sophisticated/expensive solutions.


Thanks again,

Jerry

 

[jchilcot]

My 2000 is doing the exact same thing. It squeeks like crazy in the front passenger side suspension. Last night I jacked it up so the front suspension was at full droop in order to move things around and see if I could find any worn parts. Everything was tight so I let the jack down. I pushed down on the bumper to flex the suspension and guess what the squeeking was gone. I drove it around the block being sure to hit every bump I could find to make it squeek and it didn't. By the time I pulled back into the driveway it had started to squeek again but not nearly as bad. I am thinking it might be the shock but im not sure. :scratch:

 

[Opera House]

I had a hard to find squeek from the inner steering tie rod. Had to remove the outer tie rod at the wheel to actually find it.

 

[Charlie]

I would defiantly say to look at the front sway bar bushings, thats what it was for me. The squeak you describe sounds about the same. I really hated it, because the smallest bumps would make it squeak, and also when you turn the wheel for me, it would squeak.

Does yours squeak when you turn the wheel?

 

[jchilcot]

I would defiantly say to look at the front sway bar bushings, thats what it was for me. The squeak you describe sounds about the same. I really hated it, because the smallest bumps would make it squeak, and also when you turn the wheel for me, it would squeak.

Does yours squeak when you turn the wheel?

Mine does when it gets really bad. It kind of gets worse at times.

 

[ramathorn45892]

I had the same problem. It was the bushings on the upper A frames from the ball joint. Check your balljoints and see if they are still good. If not I would replace the balljoints and upper A frames. That solved the problem for me right away. Also check the sway bar bushings.

 

[jchilcot]

Ok, what do I need to do to check the ball joints?

 

[TerryS1980]

One place to check if it is a rear squek is in between the leafs of the leafspring.

 

[IAmTodd]

My upper control arm produces a nice grinding noise. Just another issue to be taken care of under warranty.