The front suspension sounds fine over speedbumps, but the rear creaks loudly unless I go VERY slowly. The car has 52,000 miles on it, and I don't think any rear suspension components have ever been replaced. I remember other users mentioning the same problem before. Anyone know what parts are the typical culprits, and how much it's gonna cost me?

 

for me it was a quick shot of wd40 to the hinges of the hatch and problem solved. you might also wanna try tape around the latch of the hatch.

 

Thanks for the quick response, I'll try that. A friend mentioned that it could be the rear sway bar bushings. Would a set of these help me out?

http://www.rksport.com/prod_detail.p...66&view=detail

 

I was also told that those would help me out and i was just about to order some new ones when i tried the wd40 and problem solved. Now your problem might not be exactly like mine so i say try out the wd40 and the tape but after that im clueless..but for 20.00 it aint that bad of an idea if nothing else works. Let me know what happens

 

I think that noise is probably coming from either the bushings on the rear sway bar, or the lower control arms. You might want to take a look at those down there. Good luck.

 

I had the very same problem and I fixed it months ago and it has never come back.

You will need this.

1) Thick Grease
2) Two open end wrenches (forgot the size but ask around)
3) One medium to medium large carpenter size Clamp.
4) Your standard tire removal hardware (jack, lugnut wrench)
5) Park in the Shade and on even ground.
6) One medium to deep 3/4 inch socket.
7) medium to medium large screwdriver. prefrerably flat end.

Now this is how I did it. Rear End Passenger side.

I loosened the tire lugnuts, Jacked the car up, removed the tire, loosened up the Panhard Rod Bolt using the two open ended wrenches, you could also use on socket on one side and the open end wrench on the other side just to hold the bolt from turning on you. I pushed the bolt out with a little tapping on the screwdriver to pushe it out. Used the screw driver and a leverage point to push down on the panhard rod end... it came out very easy. I cleaned all the dirt off it and applied a think film of grease on the bushing and just pushed the panhard rod back onto its place, The I push the bolt back in. its gunna get stuck on its way in but dont turn it to make it go in... It just wont go in if you car shifted a millimiter... just use the clamp to push it back in. You will need the deep socket at the other end of where the bolt is coming out because you need to push the bolt all the way in.... half way wont work, you will see... just put the deep socket on the opening and put on then of the clamp there and the other on the bolt and press it in.

Once the bolt is in... Torque it in. Dont yank on the wrenches unless you want the car to fall on your legs or feet. Just use your superpowers and torque it tight.


Put tire back up... Go find some speedbumps and drive on the like an idiot... (I did) Problem fixed.


Since you end up with all that extra grease... why dont you just grease up your sway bar bushings and if its not too much work your Lower control arms bushings (pain in the azz) your panhard's other bushing and heck even your Lower Shock bushings.... put everything back together and call me in three years to see how yer car is doing.


I found my problem by using WD40. It doesnt last long. I will give you a month or less before you car sounds like your bed again. My rear end is sooo quiet now it has that new car feeling.


Marvin

 

The rear springs tend to squeak on their perches. I just put some grease right where the springs sit on their perch and my speed bump squeaking was gone.

 

I've heard spraying a mixture of alcohol and graphite on the rear spring mounts helps tremendously.

 

having worked in a tire shop that did alignments and suspension work, i saw this kind of problem all the time, the fact is after a given amont of time, metal to metal contact is inevitable, the factory uses the least amount of grease possible, just to get it past that 36,000/3 year warranty after that your on your own. alot of the time a little grease will do you wonders, and replacing bushings isnt neccessary, most people dont realize that. contrary to popular belief, those bushings can take more than ya think, as long as their taken care of. wd40 is a temporary fix, which it is for just about everything the best thing to do, if your unsure, take it to a local suspension tech and get their honest opinion (from more than one source) their usually pretty honest from what ive seen.

 

What type of grease would be best? Would bearing grease, or something like that work?

Another question. When you take your car to a shop to get it's oil changed, they say that they lube the chassis also. Is this basically what they're doing? I change my own oil, so I don't want to neglect anything.

 

Lube the Chasis huh... In my experience thats the biggest lie they feed to people. Especially to women. I am sure someone here will call me a liar but I never saw them do that to any of the cars I owned. Not even a spray of WD 40 here and there.


Thats like the current advertisings I see in the Sunday newspaper of X amount of discount coupon with a tune up. Parts not included. Try taking their offer and then bring an LT1. All of a sudden the price for parts goes over 200 dollars and they DO NOT replace your opty, DO NOT replace your wires, DO NOT read the codes off your PCM. DO NOT/CAN NOT adjust anything. We are talking Plugs only. I even read the small print saying... Carburated Cars slightly higher...

As for the Kind of Grease I used. I went with the Prolong One. It was the only one left so I grabbed it and it works fine. No problems at all. You can find Thicker grease I am sure. Oh and I did not put any grease on the spring to metal. I forgot. No noise though, and I have over 140k miles.

Marvin

 

I have a friend that works at a Jiffy Lube, and he says that they lube the chassis there. I'll ask him today what they are doing, and pass it along.

i know what you mean about know one honoring promotions for LT1s. They even charge more for alignments, even though it's just a simpe thrust-angle job.