Rear suspension noise fix: squeak and squawk

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by Nicholas O. Lindan, Mar 3, 2004.

  1. I have just fixed a loud rear suspension noise on a '96 and
    a '97 SL2: not really a squeak but more like a loud squawk -
    sort of a rusty iron bed sound. Really bad, not subtle
    at all.

    The cause in each car was a frozen ball joint in the rear
    sway bar link. Replacing the frozen link on each car fixed
    the noise.

    The sway bar link is a dog bone shaped thingy about 5" long.
    Has a ball joint at each end, with a bolt sticking out
    of from the ball, a rubber boot around the bolt. The
    link goes from the sway bar end to a projection on the
    rear suspension knuckle.

    I advise cleaning the rust from the exposed bolt threads and
    to use lots of Liquid Wrench, let soak overnight, and then
    try to remove the nuts. A real PITA with a floor jack
    and an ice cold driveway to kneel on.

    A service garage fixed one car to the tune of $190 - $48
    each for the links, $75 for labor.

    I had him return the old links, one was still OK and I used
    it to replace the squeaky link on the other car.

    It was very odd that they started squeaking within days of each other.
    Identical noise in each car, so I had figured that what
    had fixed one would fix the other.

    Failure mode on the '97 was the loss of the sealing
    disk one joint. On the '97 it was the decay of both
    ball joint boots. In each case it was the driver side
    link that had gone. The good link on each car had no
    indication of deterioration - but I won't be surprised
    if in one week -- squeak!
     
    Nicholas O. Lindan, Mar 3, 2004
    #1
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