yea. finally found a possible source of the squeaking i've been hearing on bumps and uneven roads.



this is on the driver's side. the rubber that's supposed to be surrounding the circled area is non-existent, and the rubber within that part is still there but obviously it isn't sufficient. the same part on the passenger's side is deteriorating and with a little tug i can pull off some of the external rubber. i'm 90% sure that's the control arm bushing but if i'm wrong please correct me. regardless i know i need to change this thing. how do i do it/is there a recommended replacement for it?



i also found another piece of rubber that's in the same condition as the control arm bushing on the passenger side but i have no idea what it's called. it's next to the driver's side wheel; to the right would be the control arm and to the left is the center of the car. should i look to replace this too? if so how do i do it?




and if anyone might know what other possibles sources of the squeaking is/how to isolate it please post the squeak doesn't happen when i push down on the corners of the car. while on jack stands i moved the wheels and no sound came from that either.

-for what it's worth there's a metal clunking sound that occasionally happens on the freeway accompanied by a shaky steering wheel (when i first drove on the freeway with this car i thought i was hitting all the pavement markers)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sniupyc0EAM

This was when my thing was squeaking. It was the control arm bushing that was squeaking.

 

sounds like my mom's car door lol. it's definitely not that kind of squeak

 

How many miles on the car?
You can rebuild the control arms, new bushings and ball joints or just replace them.
The second picture is the rack and pinion steering mount bushings.

 

that noise sounds very familiar... i hear the same type of noise from the neighbors that live upstairs... and its funny because it only happens when i try to sleep at night...

 

just over 110k. how extensive/expensive is the process?

 

110K isn't that many miles. The rebuild process isn't exactly easy. Replacing them is easy.
Spray the bushing with WD-40 and see if the noise goes away just to make sure you've found the problem.

 

i have a set of new lower control arms with ball joints and bushings if you need them 200 plus shipping

 

lubed it up and went for a drive. sounds exactly the same >.>


-for what it's worth there's a metal clunking sound that occasionally happens on the freeway accompanied by a shaky steering wheel (when i first drove on the freeway with this car i thought i was hitting all the pavement markers)

 

what kind of sound when u turn the wheels to the right or left? creaking?

 

a muffled "woop" that comes from the tires every .5 seconds. sounds like something rotating that's uneven. but my dad said this is probably nothing so...

also if this has any significance, every shock looks like this, but i doubt it relates to these problems. i'm sure i would've heard something when i pressed on the corners of the car

 

Those torn strut dust belows are to be expected at this age, mine were in shreds like that.

If that whoop-whoop sound changes frequency with the speed of the car chances are it is either a bad tire or wheel bearing. Rotating tires front to back can help rule them out as the culprit.

 

well i think the tire noises were typical but i was just over analyzing them. it's incredibly soft and only audible on jack stands

 

gave the sway bar links the same treatment as the bushings and no results

 

engine doesn't move abnormally when shifting between drive and reverse so motor mounts should be fine...well the front and back at least

 

The squeaking sound you are hearing is from your strut mounts /bushing. I had the same problem, everyone turns to look when you go over a bump because they think you have twenty bird shoved inunder your hood. You should replace both sides at the same time.

The rubber from your control arm bushings are getting eaten up because you more than likely have an oil leak that you haven't noticed yet. Check your can covers and oil pan gaskets. The oil pan has an upper gasket and a lower gasket. Finding that leak early is going to save you a lot of time and money., oil eats the snot out of rubber and destroys your sensors.

As for the bushings, I'd suggest saving some money and replacing them all at the same time. With your control arms going bad like that you'll go through tires faster.

Take care of her and you'll easily get 400k+ strong.