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Creaking when turning wheel in park (mostly)

J

jbarner

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 8, 2013
Messages
37
After another long weekend doing work on my car in my parking lot (oh the joys) - unfortunately for me new struts (with new mounts/bearings..KYB) did not solve this issue. I had no noise when turning the steering wheel prior to swapping out my very much dead suspension parts (inner and outer tie rods, sway bar links, lower control arms)

I've done some searching and googling but not really sure where to go from here? Anyone got any advice? I will have to wait until this weekend to get the car back up and tinker around :(

All bolts were torqued to All Data values for my 99 ford contour - although I did mix up my NM and ft lb conversions so my outer tie rods are a few ft lbs more than specified (could this cause my issue?) - was supposed to be 27 ft lbs but I ran them to 34.

My springs are fairly rusty but seemed just fine..wasn't too much trouble getting them off the OEM struts and onto the new ones. Made sure the springs seated in both stops on the spring retainer and on the strut themselves...

My OCD won't let me live with this creaky nuisance :(
 
Sometimes the only way to find issues like this is to jack the front end up and support both sides with jack stands under the A-arms, so the suspension is loaded, but the tires are off the pavement. Or just take the wheels off so you can see things better, make sure to secure the brake rotors with a couple of open lug nuts so they don't rattle and mislead your diagnoses.. For the rest of this you need a helper to move the steering wheel around while you crawl around underneath and look/listen for stuff that isn't moving right or making noise. I've found many a front end mystery noise with this method.
Two kinds of steering wheel movement are helpful:
1. A quick short rocking back and forth of the wheel can help you find stuff that's loose.
2. Slowly moving the wheel from lock to lock can help find odd noises in moving components.

You will also need to look up in the wheel well at the struts and springs to make sure stuff is moving smoothly up there. You may or may not need the engine running for this, as with the tires off the pavement, there isn't much steering drag to overcome.

Standard disclaimer applies: Make sure the car is safely supported and secure (parking brake ON, rear wheels chocked, etc...) before going underneath, don't do anything stupid, and if you get hurt or killed doing this, don't come crying to me.
 
When you say jack stands under the A-arms you mean placing them where exactly? right under the ball joint? in the cross over point (the middle of the A I guess)?
 
One quick and overlooked point is the swaybar bushings. It can move side to side from the shifting of the steering. spray some lithium grease on them and see if it quits.
 
dennyb said:
One quick and overlooked point is the swaybar bushings. It can move side to side from the shifting of the steering. spray some lithium grease on them and see if it quits.
Click to expand...


I am actually in the process of swapping them - I was lucky enough to get the passenger side bolts out (one of the welded nuts broke free - that's how much damn rust was on the bolt lol)

But in the process of doing the driver side - despite LOADS of PB blaster - the front most bolt head rounded off fairly bad..couldn't get my irwin bolt out extractor on it enough to get it to turn anymore...ordered some various tools to try and help me remove it without breaking the bolt/nut hopefully..also picked up a propane torch to heat both bolts/nuts to hopefully free them up this time...so it may very well be the bushing causing all my grief (I am hoping it is..I don't feel like taking the struts back out but it is possible I messed up installing the upper strut mounts or something).

I am going to do as gmorrell mentioned and put the car on stands tomorrow and get my neighbor to move my wheel for me and see if I can locate the source for sure..gotta do some work on the rear too now lol
 
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