Front suspension creaking noise
 

In the last few weeks, I've noticed an increasingly annoying noise coming from the passenger front shock or other suspension piece. When pulling into my driveway, going over speedbumps, or breaking suddenly enough to make the nose dip, theres a creaking noise, and my wife has felt this in her feet from the passenger seat. I popped the hood and can very easily replicate the noise by pressing on the shock tower on that side... it reminds me of a 10 year old car with struts that have never been replaced.

Any ideas of something loose I can look for? I don't have time to take in into the dealer until next week some time unfortunately...

Thanks...

These sounds can take ages to pinpoint. The only sure way is to have the dealer loosen and retorque all the sus bolts, including the wheel nuts.

The creaking may be the shock tower bushing. As suggested, take the car in for an inspection. My right rear shock upper mount was cross-threaded from the factory, so I cleaned the threads, re-inserted the bolt, torqued to spec, and the clunking was gone.

Charles

Thanks guys... I'm going to try to get to the dealer next week... I'll post the diagnosis after they've looked at it.

Thought I'd add an update to this thread. Two weeks ago I had my dealer paint my brake calipers and hubs. They had the car for several days and left it up on the lift with the wheels off for more than one overnight.

When I picked the car up the driver's side suspension was making noises very similar to G8rboy's. These were most prevalent at low speeds going over tar strips, manhole covers, RR tracks, etc. and could easily be felt through the dead pedal. Ride quality over bumps at highway speeds was also rougher.

The fix (fairly obvious) was exactly what Mr M suggested. The dealer loosened and retorqued all the suspension points. End of noise, end of bumpy ride, back to normal RX-8 calm, surefootedness. :)