Creaking wheel turning wheel

[Christopher Kratz]

This is my girlfriend’s 2008 FWD Ford Fusion. Recently she has been telling me about this creaking she gets when turning her steering wheel. Here are the circumstances:

– Almost always happens. The few times it hasn’t has been after the car has sat for a while. (Expansion?)
– Seems worse the slower you are going/turning.
– The wheel must actively be turning to produce the creaking, if the wheel is just held in place (like in the video), it does not happen.
– Suspension must have load on it. Does not happen if car is jacked up and suspension is hanging freely.
– Seems to be a slight creaking when hitting bumps as well but not nearly as pronounced as when turning.
– With wheel off, sound is seemingly coming from lower down, not higher up on the shock or strut tower.
– Vibration feels the strongest on the lower control arm and shock wishbone.

She took it to a repair shop but all they did was poked a couple holes in her lower ball joints, shot some grease in there, and told her to give it a little bit and it should work itself out. It did not. So I took a look at it myself, trying to rule out anything I could. What I did:

– All rubber boots look ok, no cracking.
– Spring insulators seemingly look ok but were not removed for thorough inspection.
– Sprayed all bushings and moving parts with lithium grease – unsuccessful.
– Sprayed strut tower with lithium grease – unsuccessful.
– Unbolted both lower control arms – unsuccessful.
– Unbolted sway bar links – unsuccessful.
– No oil coming from shock.
– Unbolted tie rod – unsuccessful.

I then unbolted the shock-to-lower control arm bolt so the shock was no longer connected, just hanging freely. I jacked the lower control arm back up to simulate load being applied and did not hear a single creak. After reconnecting the shock to the lower control arm, the creak was back immediately. The shock is bolted to the control arm via a wishbone-type arm (for lack of a better term). It is wrapped around the lower part of the shock then splits to go around the control arm, then the bolt goes through everything. What I initially thought was odd was that where the wishbone attaches to the control arm, it is metal-on-metal with the control arm’s bushing. I thought well that is the problem, the metal-on-metal is creaking, she needs a new lower control arm bushing. But after searching online, new ones look the same – it seemingly is supposed to be metal-on-metal.

So now I am second guessing myself. I figured it cannot be a coincidence that the creaking goes away as soon as I disconnected the shock from the control arm and immediately comes back when I reconnect it. But if the new one looks just like the old, how can it make a difference? I suppose, being cheap parts, I should just replace it anyway to see? Otherwise I’m not sure exactly what is causing the sound. Maybe it is stemming from higher up, like the strut tower?

Topic

[college man]

Could not view the video. There was a TSB on the struts. see if this helps.

http://www.fordfusionforum.com/topic/1376-front-suspension-noise/

[Lee Ann]

Welcome to the Forum.

The following link has alot of useful information and should help get you started.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car

Also, Eric produced great videos for how to diagnose and repair suspension issues.

Keep us posted as to your progress.

[Gene]

I had a similar thing happen on my 89 Accord – but I called it a squeak rather than a creak. In some cases it seemed intermittent.

Replaced struts (needed it anyway as fluid was leaking on one) and that didn’t fix it. Buddy of mine injected his “secret sauce” into the rubber boots on the ball joints on the Upper Control Arms (UCA) and Lower Control Arms (LCA) and that didn’t fix it. Then he injected the sauce in the boot of the tie-rod end and VIOLA! squeak gone! er, at least for a week or so.

I did the checks shown in Eric’s videos and in addition found one of the UCAs had a ball joint with lots of play (posted a video of it!). Also found that, indeed, there was play in one of the tie-rod ends.

So I replaced BOTH UCAs and BOTH tie-rod ends. Now the squeak is gone permanently!

Buddy said if I had taken it to a shop, they would have replaced all of the ball joints (UCAs, LCAs & Tie-rod ends). That makes sense as a defensive measure with old parts. But doing it one’s self one has the freedom to replace JUST the squeaking part!

All fwiw! Good Luck! Report back what you find!

[Lee Ann]

[quote=”CanDo807″ post=139344]I had a similar thing happen on my 89 Accord – but I called it a squeak rather than a creak. In some cases it seemed intermittent.

Replaced struts (needed it anyway as fluid was leaking on one) and that didn’t fix it. Buddy of mine injected his “secret sauce” into the rubber boots on the ball joints on the Upper Control Arms (UCA) and Lower Control Arms (LCA) and that didn’t fix it. Then he injected the sauce in the boot of the tie-rod end and VIOLA! squeak gone! er, at least for a week or so.

I did the checks shown in Eric’s videos and in addition found one of the UCAs had a ball joint with lots of play (posted a video of it!). Also found that, indeed, there was play in one of the tie-rod ends.

So I replaced BOTH UCAs and BOTH tie-rod ends. Now the squeak is gone permanently!

Buddy said if I had taken it to a shop, they would have replaced all of the ball joints (UCAs, LCAs & Tie-rod ends). That makes sense as a defensive measure with old parts. But doing it one’s self one has the freedom to replace JUST the squeaking part!

All fwiw! Good Luck! Report back what you find![/quote]

Yes, it is very important to have a good description and first-hand account of the noise that is being heard. A short video is an excellent way to share the issue (although nothing beats being able to test drive it personally). Descriptions vary from person to person.

[Lee Ann]

[quote=”ckratz” post=139307]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5wgDOw0xoA

This is my girlfriend’s 2008 FWD Ford Fusion. Recently she has been telling me about this creaking she gets when turning her steering wheel. Here are the circumstances:

– Almost always happens. The few times it hasn’t has been after the car has sat for a while. (Expansion?)
– Seems worse the slower you are going/turning.
– The wheel must actively be turning to produce the creaking, if the wheel is just held in place (like in the video), it does not happen.
– Suspension must have load on it. Does not happen if car is jacked up and suspension is hanging freely.
– Seems to be a slight creaking when hitting bumps as well but not nearly as pronounced as when turning.
– With wheel off, sound is seemingly coming from lower down, not higher up on the shock or strut tower.
– Vibration feels the strongest on the lower control arm and shock wishbone.

She took it to a repair shop but all they did was poked a couple holes in her lower ball joints, shot some grease in there, and told her to give it a little bit and it should work itself out. It did not. So I took a look at it myself, trying to rule out anything I could. What I did:

– All rubber boots look ok, no cracking.
– Spring insulators seemingly look ok but were not removed for thorough inspection.
– Sprayed all bushings and moving parts with lithium grease – unsuccessful.
– Sprayed strut tower with lithium grease – unsuccessful.
– Unbolted both lower control arms – unsuccessful.
– Unbolted sway bar links – unsuccessful.
– No oil coming from shock.
– Unbolted tie rod – unsuccessful.

I then unbolted the shock-to-lower control arm bolt so the shock was no longer connected, just hanging freely. I jacked the lower control arm back up to simulate load being applied and did not hear a single creak. After reconnecting the shock to the lower control arm, the creak was back immediately. The shock is bolted to the control arm via a wishbone-type arm (for lack of a better term). It is wrapped around the lower part of the shock then splits to go around the control arm, then the bolt goes through everything. What I initially thought was odd was that where the wishbone attaches to the control arm, it is metal-on-metal with the control arm’s bushing. I thought well that is the problem, the metal-on-metal is creaking, she needs a new lower control arm bushing. But after searching online, new ones look the same – it seemingly is supposed to be metal-on-metal.

So now I am second guessing myself. I figured it cannot be a coincidence that the creaking goes away as soon as I disconnected the shock from the control arm and immediately comes back when I reconnect it. But if the new one looks just like the old, how can it make a difference? I suppose, being cheap parts, I should just replace it anyway to see? Otherwise I’m not sure exactly what is causing the sound. Maybe it is stemming from higher up, like the strut tower?[/quote]

FYI I was unable to view your video also.

[Christopher Kratz]

Thanks for the input guys.

I fixed the video link, should work now.

college man: That TSB seems to describe exactly what is happening. I disassembled everything to find that the mount bearing and surfaces it contacts had some rust and a lot of dirt. I cleaned it out thoroughly and greased the hell out of it (and everything else) with brake caliper grease and dielectric grease as the TSB instructs. I did the same thing on the other side as well figuring I might as well. Once the day got hot and the car was driven a while, the creaking came back. I was thinking of trying to replace the bearings. The bearing mechanism itself is so tight, I could not physically get grease inside of it. Maybe I can try spraying some silicone on them to leak down into the bearing more, I don’t know. Unfortunately I cannot find the bearings to buy alone, I have to buy new strut mounts. Not that they’re all that expensive but I suppose before I spend any more money, I want to be fairly certain it will resolve the issue. What do you guys think?

[college man]

Try putting a screw driver or your hand on top of the bearing plate while an assistant turns the wheel.
If you can feel the noise than I think you found the problem. keep us posted.

[Christopher Kratz]

college man: I can feel it there but not all that strong.

I found that at some point she lost most of her lower spring insulator, for what it’s worth. I took apart the strut mount again and the strut mount bearing sounds gritty when I turn it. I don’t know if that equates to the creaking when there is load on it though. Regardless I sprayed the hell out of it with silicone spray, put it all back together, but it continues to creak. This time I was able to produce the creak by pushing down on the strut tower though too. https://youtu.be/TI2bq0ZjNoI Would that still be the bearing when it happens with no turn of the wheel? Then I went and got a stethoscope to listen in as she turned the wheel. The sound was practically everywhere, I guess resonating. It was pretty loud on upper ball joint and overpowering on the spring.

[Author]

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