Ok here's the background... Z51 suspension, car only has about 5000 miles, and it's been lowered since june (less than 2000 miles at the time) on cut bushings with the Zip polyurethane bushings on the bolts.

Last week I left the rear of the car on jack stands with the wheels off, for 2 days as I did a thorough inspection of the brakes and replaced the lower rear bumper that got melted from a track day. Once I drove it around there seemed to be some creaking from the suspension but I just assumed it was settling a bit. Well it didn't stop and sounded pretty loud, so I crawled under there and found that the bushings from zip were half way off of the rear bolts!

So I pulled the bushings off. They were just a little mis-shaped and looked much better than I expected. I turned them around so they'd be less likely to slide off again, and popped them back on the bolts.

Well, I drove around a bit today and it's still noisy. It's a loud creaking, and is definately coming from the rear. I hear it when I hit bumps, or go over irregular surfaces, even when I'm barely moving. I just crawled under there again and everything looks fine. The bushings are still sitting properly and I checked to make sure there are no loose bolts.

I don't know what to do, or why it's doing this all of a sudden. The only thing I can think of that I did was leave it on stands for a while, but I've done that a couple times before without anything weird happening. WHAT COULD IT BE? I remember reading that Z51 suspensions should be lubed after every track event. I seems like a long shot, but worth trying. What parts should be lubed, and what do I use? Any other suggestions? This SUCKS!!!

 

Check to see if you did any damage to the Control Arm or A-Arm. I always use a strong epoxy when putting the bushings on the bolts, so that they do not come off. Also use a good grease between the bushing and the aluminum A-Arm.

Hope this helps!!!

 

What type of epoxy did you find to stick to the polyurethane?

 

I have very similar if not exact sounds coming from my C6 with magnetic ride. I have never raced or jacked the car up and have noticed this recently with the radio off. I'm wondering how many others there are? I don't know if it matters really?
Scott

 

The noises mine makes are so loud and frequent, and are such a drastic change from what it used to be, that something must be wrong. It's usually loud enough to hear clearly even with the radio on. It may be ok to drive on, but it's incredibly annoying. I'm convinced that there must be something I can do to fix it because it pretty much started happening overnight.

 

Mine started to make the same noises after I lowered it. I removed the bushings altogether. I only noticed it when I had a passenger. I have since reinstalled the bushings (cut down) and the noise has disappeared. I think the noise was caused by the spring rubbing on the 'A' arm.

 

That's what I thought mine was from. When I get home I'm going to double check everything and put some grease on there too. I already checked the front the first time around, but I'll do it again and grease those up also. Any suggestions on an epoxy to adhere the bushings to the bolts with?

 

I recently put on the z51 sway bars and everything was ok till a couple of weeks ago. A bolt that held the sway bar to the control arm came a little loose. Driving around town it felt and sounded like the suspension when moving up and down was hitting something. Well I finally found the loose bolt and tightned it down and no more problems. I also lowered the car on stock bolts so I thought it was the bushings hitting the leaf spring or whatever that is called. But it was just a loose bolt on the control arm. This all happened on the front drivers side. Hope your problem is a simple fix like mine.

 

Thanks, I'll take a close look at those bolts.

 

Well, I didn't find any loose bolts, put grease on the bottom of the bushings, and checked for any clearance issues around the spring. No luck. I drove around a bit and still can't tell what the noise is. One thing I did notice is that if I push down on the car to make it bounce up and down, it's silent. So now I'm not even sure if it's coming from the suspension.

 

I had clunking noises on my last Honda after I put in some Suspension Techniques sway bars. Every time it was the bolts holding the bushings were loose. After thread locking and tightening it good, it never made the clunking sound again.

But if you've already checked the sway bar bushings for tightness, I suggest trying undoing your lowering job and see if there is a cause there.

Or firstly, go back to check that rear bumper thingy you fixed and then the brakes if you touched it. Maybe it's not your suspension at all? Retrace your steps backward from when you had the car on the jacks.

 

Ok, I was going to suggest the jounce test. Since that's negative, the noise probably isn't coming from the suspension. You said you had the wheels off, are you sure you evenly torqued them back to 100 ft-lb when you reinstalled them?

 

The lugs are tight. Double checked, and re-torqued after a bit of driving, but I'll check again anyway. I didn't have to touch the brakes, so it's not that. I'm trying to think of what could be loose from the bumper change. Nothing comes to mind, but I'll look around. I guess then I'll try raising it back up.