(H)G50: front suspension creak

[3Q Jay]

this is on silver (has the 18x8 +40). annoying, been getting worse for the last year. sounds like it directly under the A-pillar, mostly when making a left turn (moderate, not hard left). o-cassional during straight traking with light braking.

have replaced:swaybar bushings (frame) and both sway bar end-links with full new oem rubber (about 10k mi)LF upper link (<500mi)thought i could see minute play between knuckle and third link, so i just replaced the third link complete with new kingpin bearings. (<100mi).kingpin had no visible signs of wear.don't feel any slop in ball joint, but is original (115k, 14 yo). tension rod is not leaking, has 61k and 7 years on it.car has never been in an accident.

ideas?

[elwesso]

Lower control arm bushing?

Did you lubricate the bolts when you installed the new UL's?

[3Q Jay]

yes Wes, possible on the bushing. the transverse arm is now $380 from Joe, so i didn't want to just throw money after it. are the lower bushings a 'likely' 120k wearout item? negative on the bolt lube for the dogbone (except a little dab of the grey anti-seize on the threaded end).

[elwesso]

you could at least try poly in the LCA... Should be easy to eliminate that as a problem...

[3Q Jay]

finally, finally got to the root of this.turned out to be the LF sway bar bushing u-bracket was not within torque spec. must be my own fault from oct 2005 when i replaced tha bushing--didn't check the fsm 30-34 lb-ft spec at that time. so i could have fixed it for 5 minutes or less of my labor, instead i put a new upper link, 3rd link,tension rod, and re-replaced the swaybar end link for good measure before i found the root cause......

well- she does handle awesome now and no creaking either!!