Front right area has an unbelievable squeaking. I can only be going 1 mile an hour and hit the beaks and the squeak is horrendous. No clunking and tires and steering are tight. New upper shock mounts and everything looks and feels tight. Any thoughts?

 

Aside from shock mounts, I've experienced the worst squeaking from lower ball joints and inner tie rods.

 

+1 on lower ball joints/inner tie rods but also look at sway bar bushings

 

New upper shock mounts and lower spring packers can squeak if they aren't lubricated with lithium grease prior to installation.

Cheers,

Don

 

Does it only squeak when BRAKING and NOT a suspension thump from hitting a pothole OR a steering related squeak when turning at low speed?

Graham

 

Okay, I will start over. I watched videos on replacing the upper mounts. Did not see anything about coding Springs with lithium grease. That must be the price. Did not squeak before upper shock mount replacement. Just thumping when turning and braking. No squeaking before. Makes sense the squeak is very harmonic. Is there any way to grease these without taking it apart?

 

You should have coated the actual Welsh poly upper shock mount components with grease, not the springs. Wayne (cjd777) and I did so when we installed the Welsh components in my wife's 2006 XK8 in early January 2016. They were slightly noisy the first couple of days as they settled in. Once properly seated, they have been silent ever since....

 

Stacey, I've installed two sets of poly shock mounts by welsh, put plenty of miles on them - always absolutely silent. While probably a good idea to lube them, it's not an absolute necessity by any means. If you're like me, you probably just want to find and fix it. Be patient, we will get there.

Look forward to your answer about if it happens over speed bumps, or while turning the wheel to, say, pull out of a parking spot in the morning. Both of those would further point to front sway bar bushings. One of mine got loose once = quite noisy under these conditions.

John

 

If you used the polyurethane upper mounts, silicone grease would be an appropriate lubricant and is what poly bushing manufacturers typically supply with their bushings. The important thing is that any grease used must be safe for rubber/plastics. Petroleum-based lubricants can promote deterioration of rubber or plastics.

 

Just putting it in reverse and having a little car body movement makes the squeak extremely evident when you step on the break or take off whenever you have a big movement in the front suspension. I just don’t remember hearing this before I put them in driving home for an hour when I bought the car

 

Stacey, can you get some one to help you id the side the noise is from?

If so, do you have access to 2 a jack and a pair of Jack stands?

Jacking the car up will initiate the noise. Not safe to go under until you have car on stable jackstands.

Raise front of car from front center jacking position. Place stands. Lower jack, move it under noisy side's suspension under bottom of shock. Raise wheel with the Jack, listen for noise origin.

While you're in there, can you move the sway bar by hand? I could when the bushing (in front) bracket bolt loosened causing noise.

John

 

Bought a can of white lithium spray on Grease. Took the squeaks away. Must have been at the top of the coil spring where it meets the upper bushing. Everything is good now. Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

 

I changed my shock mounts a while back with poly mounts. After about a week or so I had this obnoxious rattling/squeeking noise coming from the passenger side (U.S.). Turns out the culprit was my wheel liner had lost a couple fasteners (read that as "I failed to install them"...) and the liner was rubbing on the fender. I put the fasteners back in and the obnoxious sound waas gone.

 

I finally found out what the terrible sound was. Lower control arm bushing was loose. Not believe that a little movement in the lower bushing made that much noise. Problem resolved. Thanks for everybody replying to my thread. Thanks Stacy

 

Hey Stacy, thank you for the follow up.

John

 

And the squeaks kept getting louder and louder.

And they were coming from inside the dash, middle, left and right.

Everyone who sat in the passenger seat agreed with the driver.

And so everything that could be tightened or adjusted or padded was tightened or adjusted or padded

(or loosened to see if that worked).

"It cannot be coming from the upper shock mounts like everyone said!

it's in the dash, gosh darnit!"

(or something like that)

White lithium grease sprayed liberally in the upper shock mounts.

"Hmmm. They were all right."

Thanks all.

 

Dale,

Given your post's title I was expecting to hear some Pete Townshend. Now that I'm thinking about it, I believe I'll go crank up my LP of "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" on my turntable....

 

Jon,

My turntable happens to squeak (ancient Dual direct drive that should have been tossed in the trash long ago). Now that I know the secret, I'm now going to go lithium grease the amp to fix it.

Dale

 

That white lithium grease works wonders just about anywhere. Glad to see that someone else besides me still has their vintage Dual turntable (mine is a Dual 1218 purchased way back in 1973 when I was a second-semester sophomore at N.C. State). Still enjoy playing it on a regular basis and even just staring at its original United Audio walnut base. They certainly don't build them like that nowadays....

 

I have 1228 from the '70's that has quit working. Might have to try the lithium.