Help Diagnose this awful noise? (sound bit included)

The some of the years of SC's have a large washer for the upper shock mount that can rub the shock tower opening if the upper mount is worn. You might check to see if this is happening. If I remember right, the early cars have a smaller whole than the 93ish ones. If you put the washer from a 93 on an 89, it will rub even if the upper mount Is in decent shape.

Anyway, pop the hood and look for signs of rubbing. :)

BTW, Rockauto is by far the cheapest place to get these...
 
The some of the years of SC's have a large washer for the upper shock mount that can rub the shock tower opening if the upper mount is worn. You might check to see if this is happening. If I remember right, the early cars have a smaller whole than the 93ish ones. If you put the washer from a 93 on an 89, it will rub even if the upper mount Is in decent shape.

Anyway, pop the hood and look for signs of rubbing. :)

BTW, Rockauto is by far the cheapest place to get these...

I'll check this out today, much appreciated!
 
I think this is the problem, here. What part is this?




This car was taken to Jerry's Ford Leesburg on 4 separate occasions and this was never brought up. I brought it in this morning and had the tech take a ride with me, he said he'd have to take it for a few days again to "diagnose" the issue.

I don't know ~~~~ about cars, and found this issue within 2 minutes of looking at it.


Do not take your car to:
Jerry's Ford
847 East Market Street, Leesburg, VA 20175
703-777-0000
 

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Upper control arm. You might be able to move it around by hand.

This is very common, boots go and it wears out.
 
I can't quite make out the noise from the video. The picture is the upper control arm w/an upper ball joint. Last I checked, you could still buy these at any auto parts store. The upper control arm & ball joint come as one piece. I would suggest trying to buy Moog or TRW parts. I replaced same part on my car 7 years ago. Now it's starting to knock on the passenger side going over bumps again, I jacked the front of the car up, turned the wheel right, then left, while smacking the TIRE ONLY with a 5lb hammer. Turns out it's the upper control arm, bushings and ball joint. Hope this helps. Good luck!
 
As the guys menioned, it's the upper control arm. Still readily available.

I think usually, when worn out, it will make more of a rattle than a squeak like I thought I heard in the video, but I suppose if the grease is all gone, it could make a nasty squeak easily.

I would have thought that would be obvious to a mechanic. :rolleyes:
 
As the guys menioned, it's the upper control arm. Still readily available.

I think usually, when worn out, it will make more of a rattle than a squeak like I thought I heard in the video, but I suppose if the grease is all gone, it could make a nasty squeak easily.

I would have thought that would be obvious to a mechanic. :rolleyes:

Balljoints will squeak badly when dry. The uppers on these cars do typically rattle quite a bit when worn. The technician should have diagnosed a broken grease cup during a visual inspection. Those upper control arms are defintitely still available.
 
noise

Sounds a lot like metal grinding. Another place to check the lower strut rod where it goes into the crossmember, on the crossmember it looks like a cup that the rubber bushing and rod go threw that cup is pressed together some times they get lose and start moving and sounds like the front end is going to fall out. If that is the case you will have to put a tack weld on both sides of that retainer to keep it from moving around. this happened to my car and it drove me nuts trying to figure out. the best way to find the problem is to put the front end in the air place a jack under the lca jack it up and look for movement of the retainer cup in the crossmember. Hope this helps.
 
I was thinking the sawy bar bushings might be worn/dried out, but that was before I read the comments. I would check the upper strut mounts out to see if they are worn. The Upper ball joint there should probably be replaced too since the cover is torn and has probably let the grease out and will wear fast now, but I haven't heard an upper make a noise like that.

When the car is sitting still and you press down on the front of the car to bounce it, is the noise still present?
 
It's probably the strut making noise is my guess. If you can get it to make noise when pushing down on the right front of the car yourself then get another person no put their hand on the strut and see if they can feel the vibration that noise is causing. Find where the vibration from that noise and you'll find your problem. Maybe it's the steering rack??? Cant be that hard to figure out if its making that much noise.

Chris
 
I had 2 year old sway bar end links make mad noise, I ruled them out till I shot penetrating oil in the boots of the links & they were forever quiet. They did make a solid creaking noise you could feel in the steering wheel.
 
SAME sound as mine is making right now!
I have to dig in to mine again too.

Been 3 years since I replaced everything and the front end is squeaking and clunking again. Have to get her in the air on a rack and listen/feel for what is making noise so I don't just throw money/parts at it.

Once you find the problem, IF the boot is still good and there is no play(just squeaking) you can slide the boot off, spray with pentrant and/or pack some grease in there to get more time out of it.

Let us know what you find!
 
Ok most have said correctly what it is.

Here are some tips from a front end and brake mechanic:

When you said it makes the noise if you just turn the steering wheel that was a sure tip that it was a ball jt. Either upper or lower. Since your picture is of the upper with the the boot broken and what appears to be metal filings that is you culprit. Your can check this jt for play by jacking under the lower control arm and shaking the tire at 5 and 11 o'clock hand positions. If your have any play replace it. You can just replace the just the jt but it is likely easier to replace the whole control arm. Get the car aligned after.

NOW HEAR THIS: This jt is likely loose and it is a safety hazard if. It can break and send you out of control. Do not spray penetrating oil on it and think it is fixed just because it does not make noise. Besides putting you in danger it will also wear tires. REPLACE IT.
 
Here are some tips from a front end and brake mechanic:

When you said it makes the noise if you just turn the steering wheel that was a sure tip that it was a ball jt. Either upper or lower. Since your picture is of the upper with the the boot broken and what appears to be metal filings that is you culprit. Your can check this jt for play by jacking under the lower control arm and shaking the tire at 5 and 11 o'clock hand positions. If your have any play replace it. You can just replace the just the jt but it is likely easier to replace the whole control arm. Get the car aligned after.

NOW HEAR THIS: This jt is likely loose and it is a safety hazard if. It can break and send you out of control. Do not spray penetrating oil on it and think it is fixed just because it does not make noise. Besides putting you in danger it will also wear tires. REPLACE IT.

The upper ball joints on our cars are not serviceable. Meaning if the ball joint is defective the entire upper control arm must be replaced. Suspensions are funny sometimes. Sometimes ball joints if worn will creak when turning the wheel sometimes they will creak when moving up and down, and sometimes they will creak all of the time.

Penetrating oil is a bad idea for sure. From the looks of that upper ball joint it needs replaced. If a grease cup is torn like that one the correct procedure is to replace it even if the joint isn't loose.

I love the suspension design of our cars but at 4,000 pounds those upper ball joints are too small. Additionally I believe that the reason the aftermarket suspension parts appear to wear out sooner than the factory parts is because of worn struts and springs or a combination of both. Installing new suspension parts on cars with coil springs that have 100k plus and old struts is a bad idea. The suspension travels further and more often than it did when new in this scenario and this will in effect wear out suspension parts more quickly.

Proper ride height is critical when it comes to suspension geometry and changes in this geometry will change the angles at which these parts were designed to operate again causing premature wear.
 
I will point out that the Spicer Pro and the Raybestos Professional Grade UCAs for our cars feature replaceable ball joints, and that they are a fairly large ball joint (even larger than the factory ones).

I will ALSO point out that the cheap Chinee crap uses smaller ball joints than factory ...

And I agree with 90sc35thann - the factory ball joints aren't any oversized, could be considered undersized for the weight of our cars.

RwP
 
As gr8ghost said, it's not too hard to check the ball joints for play. Just be careful to support the body of the car with a jackstand or two, then jack up the LCA. This makes sure that the suspension is in a relatively natural position that won't bind a loose ball joint and mask a problem.

One other potential cause for a horrendous creak on the front end is bad UCA bushings. I had that on one of my Thunderbirds. There was a TSB about it many years back. That noise should be obvious if you push on the front of the car to bounce it up and down.

Of course, if you are replacing UCAs, then you get new bushings as well.
 
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