thomastl

2002 Corvette Coupe, Automatic.
Very bad squeak in front suspension. You could push down on either side of the car above the tire and it sounded like an old truck.
Noise was constant while driving over anything but perfect road.
Problem was the sway bar bushings where they mount to the front cradle.
We removed (just 2 bolts on each one and they slide right off), cleaned, greased inside and out, reinstalled.
Problem solved.

Thought I would share for anyone that is fighting a front end squeak.

Evil-Twin

This has been shared many many many times. Front end squeak has been covered in 81,659 different threads over the last ten years. A simple search would show this. While your intent was honest, had you done a search you would have realized that the big problem is the fact that people do NOT search this forum's almost infinite wisdom. I had a guy that was so lazy, he PM's me and the first thing he said was he was too lazy to do a search and figured by PMing me, I would tell him what he wanted to know... thus saving him the time. He didn't realize that I had much better things to do like help people with issues they could not find an answer too. He actually thought it was my job to help him.
Anyway, thanks for your good intentions.

kongpup

What a pretentious *****. I've been hunting through these forums trying to identify the same problem using the keywords "creak", "noise", etc., with no luck. Not until I stumbled onto thomastl's post did I find anything matching my situation. Thank you, thomastl. "Evil-twin" - get bent.

Zeus-of-Boost

i know right. eveyone knows that the search feature is a joke. i just google to find something on corvetteforum lol

johnson-rod

If people didn't start threads by asking questions this would be a very quiet forum.

I have a suggestion: The old veterans of the board who don't want to answer newbie questions should stick to answering difficult and unusual questions and leave the easy stuff to the newer guys. Newbies would like to contribute to the forum too and this is a perfect start. There are questions they (we) are glad to answer because it's new stuff to us. We just figured this stuff out ourselves last week.

87SAM

Kongpup, it's your first post on the forum. Way to go. I’d normally say welcome.

VYMIKE

The search function on this forum, as well as almost any other forum for that matter, completely sucks ***.
I had to do a google search for this issue, and only then did this forum pop up with similar issues.
I'm having the same squeaking noise and it's driving me nuts. My car sounds like a 1950's, old, crusty pickup truck going down the road.
It's so loud, it's embarrassing. I'll put my car on ramps tomorrow and check out the sway bar bushings and end links.

VYMIKE

Found the issue after spending almost an hour under the car.
I did take the sway bar bushings out and greased them. That didn't do anything for the noise.

All the noise was coming from the drivers side, top of the shock absorber bushing. I greased the upper bushing which is located under the coolant reservoir tank.
That shut everything up nice.

bjones7131

I believe I have seen where u could wrap teflon tape aroung that bushing sway bar area and fix the squeak. Good tip from original OP, thanks

VYMIKE

Well, I was wrong. It wasn't the upper bushing. It's the shock itself. A little WD-40 sprayed up into the shock tube seems to quiet it down. I thought it was the bushing after greasing that, but forgot that I had sprayed the shock tube and upper control arm first.
Looks like I have to buy a new shock.

Michael A

Let everyone contribute. That's why it's called a forum.

Even us old timers have questions. As long as we are on the topic, what kind of grease?

I've used silicone grease. Didn't last long.

I've used white lithium. Lasted longer, but noise still came back.

Next wheel bearing grease. Lasted even longer, but surprisingly noise came back. Probably not good for rubber either.

I hate to use something that will degrade the bushing rubber. That's why I was hoping silicone would work.

Michael

Turpid porpoise

I have wrapped my sway bars with teflon tape in the locations the bushings contact them and it has completely solved my squeaking issue.

Michael A

Great idea. What kind and where do you get the Teflon tape?

Michael

bjones7131

Teflon tape can be bought at any ace or home improvement store. It is on a round spool white in color mainly used for wrapping screwed pipe joints before putting them togethere to prevent leaks.

Michael A

I would never have thought that thin pipe joint tape would work. I would have thought it would just fall apart. Good to know. I'll give it a try. Thanks!

Michael

LoneStarFRC

Use THIS. Three different kinds of lubricants (including Teflon), none of which are water soluble. Pick your favorite AP store.

/thread