During the really cold spell in the northeast about a month or two ago my 06x (lowered on Tein S-techs) front driver's suspension developed a horrible squeak/creak noise when the suspension would travel. Not just over big bumps but even when you lightly accelerate (even in reverse) the suspension loads and unloads a little and this could produce a horrible sounding squeak. Seemed to be worse when extremely cold and I think it had mostly stopped when the weather warmed up recently. I assumed it was going to be the compression rod because I'm at 240k and I've never done them since getting it at 170k.

So I was still driving around sounding like a clapped out 1973 station wagon while waiting for it to warm up enough to work in the garage. But last week I start to feel a little vibration at highway speeds only when making a lane change type steering input in one direction. This vibration reminds me of what it felt like when I had loose lug nuts once. Not so bad that I felt like a wheel was going to fall off but enough to tell you something is really wrong and needs to be fixed. I checked the lug nuts and they're all tight so I parked the car until it warmed up.

Last night I jacked it up and don't feel any play when pushing/pulling at 3 and 9 or 6 and 12.. I get the very slightest hint of up down movement from the lower ball joint when I pry up on the tire or even with my hands pressing up on the knuckle from below the ball joint. The movement is so slight it's more of a sound or click feeling than a measurable displacement. If I had to guess it's moving 1/32" or maybe 1/16". This is a ball joint I got from CZP I think and replaced about 40k miles ago. I don't know if this much slop in a ball joint is going to cause the kind of noise/vibration I was hearing but I wouldn't think so.

I pulled the compression rod and lower control arm off because I was assuming the squeaking meant I needed new bushings but the oem bushings look really good. They aren't torn or damaged. UCA looks perfect too. I found a completely ruined inner cv boot but no obvious signs the cv joint/axle is causing the noise or vibration. So I don't know where this squeaking and vibration is coming from.

Anybody else had these symptoms and know which pieces are likely at fault? If a bearing doesn't fail the 6 and 12 wobble test, is there some other way to tell if it's good or bad?

Thanks for any advice....

 

I feel as if the ball joint would clunk if it was the issue, not creak. Did you torque everything down while there was weight on the suspension? That's a source of creaking, if you did torques with the suspension extended.

 

Appreciate the response. The last time I had my front end apart was to replace a wheel bearing and install lowering springs and I probably didn't tighten everything up with the car on the ground. It didn't creak for a couple of years. I also wouldn't have taken anything off at that time that was connected at a point with a bushing. To change the wheel bearing all I had to do was disconnect all the ball joints to get the steering knuckle off. All the control arms and compression rod stayed put. I think these are the points that you have tighten with the suspension compressed, right?

I'm hoping the creaking was maybe coming from the sway bar bushings even though they don't look bad. They're short money and look easy to change and I've heard these creak frequently in other cars. I have no idea where the vibration is coming from though... I see the manual says the axial play in the ball joint should be 0mm so I guess that part needs to be replaced. I'll fix the ball joint and fix the cv boot or replace the axle and put it back together and see if I still have a problem.

 

Check the FSM in the sections FSU and RSU they show exactly where to put a prybar and how many lbs force to exert, if the parts move more than the specified amount then they need replacing. It's a really accurate way to determine component wear, I learned quite a few things reading those sections fully.

 

Yep ^

I torqued things down with a jack under the front lower arm with most of the suspension loaded.

Not doing so has been known to prematurely tear things.