adrian8

I have a strange creaking/popping sound that is coming from my front suspension. My car is an 05 with 73000 miles. The previous owner says he replaced the front pads himself before he sold it to me, so it could be something there, but it feels more like something is loose in the suspension.

I've taken off and retorqued both front sway bar links. I've also removed the strut tower brace and retorqued the top 3 bolts on each strut tower to the chassis and the 12mm tower brace bolts, to no effect.

I really don't want to remove the entire passenger coilover assembly and rebuild it, but I can't think of anything else to try to do. I've attached an audio file of what it sounds like. The "pop pop pop" you hear as I am coming to a stop is the noise, although in person it sounds more like a groaning spring to me. It feels like you can barely feel it though the brake pedal as well, but that might be my imagination.

The sound in question is in the last third of the file. (the last 3 seconds or so).

The noise only happens under medium braking. light braking and panic stops are silent.

Any ideas?

Demon87

it sounds like my car. but my 8 had AP hard end links on my sway bars. Does yours have stock end links? if so check the bushings for any cracks or movement it shouldnt have. If you have solid links thats just the way they are lol

paimon.soror

iTrader: (15)

the brakes sound culprit, especially if they didn't replace the shims or grease the pads as they could slide about and make some noise.

You can isolate the swaybar and the endlinks making noise by simply disconnecting one side and driving around cautiously to see if the noise persists.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Did you check the calipers are tightened down properly?
That's a pretty evident noise..should be able to find it if you put the front up on jack stands and give it a rattle.
Check the ball joint on the lower control arm as well for play.
Check the sway bar mounting brackets as well....

adrian8

Those are all great suggestions. Here's what I did last night:

- Removed both end links again and drove around. Other than the car rolling like a lincoln, no change.
- Retorqued end link bolts again after testing my torque wrench and finding out it was off. Now they are torqued to 35 ft-lbs. no change
- Took off the caliper and yanked on everything I could think of in the suspension. Everything seemed tight.
- The little rotary switch linkage on the driver side seems wiggly. (the one connecting the lower control arm to some sensor) but that part isn't under tension so I can't imagine that it what it is.
- put a jack under the lower control arm and jacked it up until the car was off the stand looking for any noise. Nothing.
- To my eye, the bushings on any of the control arms don't appear bad, and trying to wiggle around the control arms seem solid.

So, at this point, I'm not sure what else to try. The only things left I can think of (and its a stretch) is:

- Maybe the wheel bearing is just starting to go?
- Maybe the control arm bearings? (but they appear ok and don't have play)
- maybe something in the driver side spring or spring perch?

Any of those to take apart is a decent amount of work, and it would suck to do all that unnecessarily.

What's the next step?

paimon.soror

iTrader: (15)

so in your original post you mention it only makes the noise when coming to a stop?

Any more details? Does it happen on straight stops? Does it happen when stopping while making a left hand turn? Right hand turn?

Does it make the noise when simply slowing down? or only when coming to a complete stop?

just trying to narrow it down further.

adrian8

Well, it sounds like a bunch of different things. Let me sum it up:

- The noise is most prevalent under medium braking
- as you are coming to a stop, if you are gentle in letting up on the brakes, you sometimes hear similar noises as the suspension unloads.
- I sometimes hear slight groaning (but not the knocking in the audio) when I drive over a rounded curb or speed bump.
- It seems to be speed related, happening more frequently at lower speeds. (I.e, as you slow down, it might be knock....knock..knock.knockknock
- when it decides to knock, you can feel it in the chassis
- we know it is not sway bar related
- Yanking on stuff while the car is on jack stands feels solid
- yanking on a torqued tire while the car is on jack stands also feels solid (the usual test for rotten bearings)
- the car's handling feels great

My friend thinks that it might be the wheel bearing. He thinks I should just wait and see if it gets worse. That doesn't feel like the right thing to do though. I think it sounds like a spring spinning in a chattery way in it's perch as it is getting loaded/unloaded. Can that even happen? Both of these opinions are wild *** guesses and I don't want to tear a bunch of stuff apart just on a whim.

Clear as mud, right?

04Green

iTrader: (1)

Try the wheels torqued to 100 ft-lb. see if it goes away. There is a service bulletin on why, something to do with the paint on the rotor or some such nonsense..

But, it might work.

paimon.soror

iTrader: (15)

Might also be worth checking to make sure that the lock nuts at the top of the shock hats do not have any play in them in the rare event that the bushings have worn their way through.