A few months ago I replaced my original sway bar end links and bushings with Moogs. I also replaced the boots and bump stops on my struts. For about a month everything felt great in the front end, much tighter that it used too. Now though, especially when the car has been sitting outside in the cold for a while, I get a TON of noise coming from the front driver's side. It happens mostly on bumps, but there's also a clicking noise when turning the wheel at low speeds.

My first thought was that one of the stabilizer bar links had come loose, but I checked them and they are all tight. I then checked the wheel bearings and the cv's, but they seem pretty tight and the boots are all fine. The tie rods seem tight as well. The only thing I can think of now is the strut bearings. I checked them when I had the struts apart and they both rotated freely and looked to be in great shape. They only have about 50k miles on them as I replaced them when I put my Illuminas on. Oh and btw the 3 nuts on the top of the strut towers are all tight as well as the bolt on the struts themselves.

It's actually making me nervous as the noise sounds like something that is VERY loose. I just don't understand why I can't find the problem. I've checked every nut and bolt I can see on the front end but they all are tight.

 

CV shafts can actually start to make clicking noises even with boots intact. Over time, grease breaks down and begins to congeal. You can have a shop repack them for like $20 bucks if you bring it to them. I'm more inclined to think you have a common scenario that happens with many people that replace parts with MOOG. The greaseable joints need to be filled after installation. It's not a plug-and-play really. I think this happened to Rochester a few weeks back with his MOOG parts. It's also happened to me in the past. I got in a hurry, slapped the new parts on with the grease fittings threaded in, and forgot to fill with grease. A few weeks later I had noise. One application of grease later, no noise. Hopefully, it's this simple for you. Otherwise, you'll have to pinpoint the noise. GL!

 

I actually made sure to grease the Moogs, BUT, I ran out of grease on the driver's side and had to pack them by hand with the little grease I had left. Thanks for reminding me of this. I'm now betting that this could be the source of the noise.

 

Yup. I've come to suspect either the volume or the quality of the pre-packed grease in these Moog parts.

Go buy a grease gun with a nice, flexible neck. Spend the extra dollar or so on high-end grease (such as it is). And check your Moog parts whenever... I have no idea what kind of frequency. I dunno, twice a year, maybe?

Of course, I make that estimate based on nothing what-so-ever.

 

I believe MOOG prepacks, but says to add more after installation since they can't add a satisfactory amount due to the grease fitting hole being open during manufacturing. I try to grease about twice a year, but that is unnecessary unless you put a lot of miles on your vehicle. Why not? Including pulling the ramps out, it takes me about 10 minutes to grease the suspension parts. Easier than an oil change.

 

Did you solve the noise issue?