weird "creaking" noise
#16
09-22-2012, 03:30 AM
#18
09-22-2012, 11:17 AM
#20
10-03-2014, 12:53 AM
FYI: Another follow up on this:
After a recent heat spell, I finally got sick of the creaking noise happening with my car and pulled the sway bushings off and lubed the snot out of them with silicone and figured that would be the end of it. Well, as it turns out, it did absolutely nothing to the noise.
OOOOkay, so next, I put the car up on ramps, dropped the belly pan (again), opened the hood and made my wife climb up on the radiator support, then had her bounce up and down while I listened from underneath. Sonofab&*tch if it wasn't those same bushings I just lubed (still dripping yet) that were squeaking up a storm.
After removing them again, I noted that the inner mating surface of the bushing rubber (to the bar) was all rough and textured, like an inner fibrous weave was starting to come through (reinforcing maybe?). Anyway, I also noted that the sway bar also felt rough, with little ridges running parallel to the bar all around its circumference, but only where the rubber had been covering it. It appears that the roughness of the fiber inside the old bushings had worn grooves into the powder coated paint on the sway bar. This is most likely what was causing all the racket, in spite of the generous portion of some very slippery silicon lube that I'd used.
So, I called up local Infiniti and Nissan dealerships in my area for pricing on replacement bushings. Infiniti wanted something like $16 a piece, while Nissan had them for (what they claimed was full "list" price of) $7.42 each. Same exact part, with the same exact part number, in the same exact bag, with the same exact labeling. Thanks for nothing Infiniti!
I went ahead and used some scotch brite pad to buff the sway bar smooth again before installing the new bushings and added a swab of some silicone grease before buttoning them up. It's been a few weeks now, and after some more 95* weather, with the AC running flat out (to generate as much heat on them as possible), I can finally say that the dreaded squeak is GONE!
TLDR: It's the sway bushings! Lube alone won't do it; you need to replace them and make sure the bar is smooth where it meets them.
After a recent heat spell, I finally got sick of the creaking noise happening with my car and pulled the sway bushings off and lubed the snot out of them with silicone and figured that would be the end of it. Well, as it turns out, it did absolutely nothing to the noise.
OOOOkay, so next, I put the car up on ramps, dropped the belly pan (again), opened the hood and made my wife climb up on the radiator support, then had her bounce up and down while I listened from underneath. Sonofab&*tch if it wasn't those same bushings I just lubed (still dripping yet) that were squeaking up a storm.
After removing them again, I noted that the inner mating surface of the bushing rubber (to the bar) was all rough and textured, like an inner fibrous weave was starting to come through (reinforcing maybe?). Anyway, I also noted that the sway bar also felt rough, with little ridges running parallel to the bar all around its circumference, but only where the rubber had been covering it. It appears that the roughness of the fiber inside the old bushings had worn grooves into the powder coated paint on the sway bar. This is most likely what was causing all the racket, in spite of the generous portion of some very slippery silicon lube that I'd used.
So, I called up local Infiniti and Nissan dealerships in my area for pricing on replacement bushings. Infiniti wanted something like $16 a piece, while Nissan had them for (what they claimed was full "list" price of) $7.42 each. Same exact part, with the same exact part number, in the same exact bag, with the same exact labeling. Thanks for nothing Infiniti!
I went ahead and used some scotch brite pad to buff the sway bar smooth again before installing the new bushings and added a swab of some silicone grease before buttoning them up. It's been a few weeks now, and after some more 95* weather, with the AC running flat out (to generate as much heat on them as possible), I can finally say that the dreaded squeak is GONE!
TLDR: It's the sway bushings! Lube alone won't do it; you need to replace them and make sure the bar is smooth where it meets them.
#21
10-03-2014, 01:02 AM
FYI: Another follow up on this:
After a recent heat spell, I finally got sick of the creaking noise happening with my car and pulled the sway bushings off and lubed the snot out of them with silicone and figured that would be the end of it. Well, as it turns out, it did absolutely nothing to the noise.
OOOOkay, so next, I put the car up on ramps, dropped the belly pan (again), opened the hood and made my wife climb up on the radiator support, then had her bounce up and down while I listened from underneath. Sonofab&*tch if it wasn't those same bushings I just lubed (still dripping yet) that were squeaking up a storm.
After removing them again, I noted that the inner mating surface of the bushing rubber (to the bar) was all rough and textured, like an inner fibrous weave was starting to come through (reinforcing maybe?). Anyway, I also noted that the sway bar also felt rough, with little ridges running parallel to the bar all around its circumference, but only where the rubber had been covering it. It appears that the roughness of the fiber inside the old bushings had worn grooves into the powder coated paint on the sway bar. This is most likely what was causing all the racket, in spite of the generous portion of some very slippery silicon lube that I'd used.
So, I called up local Infiniti and Nissan dealerships in my area for pricing on replacement bushings. Infiniti wanted something like $16 a piece, while Nissan had them for (what they claimed was full "list" price of) $7.42 each. Same exact part, with the same exact part number, in the same exact bag, with the same exact labeling. Thanks for nothing Infiniti!
I went ahead and used some scotch brite pad to buff the sway bar smooth again before installing the new bushings and added a swab of some silicone grease before buttoning them up. It's been a few weeks now, and after some more 95* weather, with the AC running flat out (to generate as much heat on them as possible), I can finally say that the dreaded squeak is GONE!
TLDR: It's the sway bushings! Lube alone won't do it; you need to replace them and make sure the bar is smooth where it meets them.
After a recent heat spell, I finally got sick of the creaking noise happening with my car and pulled the sway bushings off and lubed the snot out of them with silicone and figured that would be the end of it. Well, as it turns out, it did absolutely nothing to the noise.
OOOOkay, so next, I put the car up on ramps, dropped the belly pan (again), opened the hood and made my wife climb up on the radiator support, then had her bounce up and down while I listened from underneath. Sonofab&*tch if it wasn't those same bushings I just lubed (still dripping yet) that were squeaking up a storm.
After removing them again, I noted that the inner mating surface of the bushing rubber (to the bar) was all rough and textured, like an inner fibrous weave was starting to come through (reinforcing maybe?). Anyway, I also noted that the sway bar also felt rough, with little ridges running parallel to the bar all around its circumference, but only where the rubber had been covering it. It appears that the roughness of the fiber inside the old bushings had worn grooves into the powder coated paint on the sway bar. This is most likely what was causing all the racket, in spite of the generous portion of some very slippery silicon lube that I'd used.
So, I called up local Infiniti and Nissan dealerships in my area for pricing on replacement bushings. Infiniti wanted something like $16 a piece, while Nissan had them for (what they claimed was full "list" price of) $7.42 each. Same exact part, with the same exact part number, in the same exact bag, with the same exact labeling. Thanks for nothing Infiniti!
I went ahead and used some scotch brite pad to buff the sway bar smooth again before installing the new bushings and added a swab of some silicone grease before buttoning them up. It's been a few weeks now, and after some more 95* weather, with the AC running flat out (to generate as much heat on them as possible), I can finally say that the dreaded squeak is GONE!
TLDR: It's the sway bushings! Lube alone won't do it; you need to replace them and make sure the bar is smooth where it meets them.
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