Ann Arbor, MI Troubleshooting

LostRenegade · **Posted:** Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:17 pm

I am getting a considerable amount of noise from my front end when the suspension travels up or down. Can someone in the Ann Arbor, MI area help me troubleshoot the problem?

It sounds like a beer can crushing when I brake or accelerate hard.

Thanks,

KJ-BOL · **Posted:** Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:11 pm

is it when you are driving?
Can you make the noise come up when stopped and you push down on the hood or somehow stand on the bumper and bounce it up & down?

Science_Guy · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:51 am

My first thought was that you may need to grease the bushing on your sway bar but I am not sure since you say it is on braking and acceleration. It is easy enough to take them out and put some grease in there to see if that helps.

Spowers · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:58 am

Accelerating or braking will cause the front of the vehicle to rise and lower. Like KJ-BOL said, test by depressing on the bumper to see if the noise is still there.
Has this been around since the Badlands run.

Have you made any changes? Did you lift of alter anyting on the front end?

KJ-BOL · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:33 am

the only things that would cause the noise are
swaybar bushings - grease them
check front struts for leaking
power wash both sides of front suspension components
check upper & lower ball joints
I don't see what else could cause the noise
I had the same noise for about 3-5 days.... was traveling to IN one day and it felt so noisy that I decided to go back home and leave the KJ and take the Jetta.
Took the KJ to dealer, they told me it was the lower ball joint, they did the recall on them, picked it up, noise was still there - they claimed they could not reproduce the noisy front.
Drove it for a couple of days, noise went away on its own I guess.
One of the things that mine had (and I want you to test on this too) - when stopped -NOT IN PARK- but when stopped, and you turn the steering wheel side to side - does the noise come up? Do it on a quiet place, near by a wall, and see if you can hear something.

Henry

LostRenegade · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:06 pm

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. The noise started after putting on the Rusty 1/2" strut plates and doing a clevis. I have the Rusty coil lift, but it was sagging considerably. These mods were a stop gap till I can save up for a Frankenlift. My Axel/CV joints are almost straight across. I used to have considerable wheel rub from the sagging.

I have greased the main sway bar, but not the links down to the lower control arms. I have already had the ball joint recall done. However, I have sprayed them considerably with WD40.

I noticed that i am getting some contact on the springs from either the upper control arm or the upper ball joint. I notice this when I hit a speed bump hard. I am also getting some contact from the brake line on the passenger side hitting the clevis when fully turning to the left.

If I return the clevis to normal, will this help mitigate these problems?

moose · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:47 pm

LostRenegade wrote:

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. The noise started after putting on the Rusty 1/2" strut plates and doing a clevis. I have the Rusty coil lift, but it was sagging considerably. These mods were a stop gap till I can save up for a Frankenlift. My Axel/CV joints are almost straight across. I used to have considerable wheel rub from the sagging.

I have greased the main sway bar, but not the links down to the lower control arms. I have already had the ball joint recall done. However, I have sprayed them considerably with WD40.

I noticed that i am getting some contact on the springs from either the upper control arm or the upper ball joint. I notice this when I hit a speed bump hard. I am also getting some contact from the brake line on the passenger side hitting the clevis when fully turning to the left.

If I return the clevis to normal, will this help mitigate these problems?

It sounds like you have too much clevis lift.

LostRenegade · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:00 pm

moose wrote:

It sounds like you have too much clevis lift.

The clevis lift is at 1/2".

moose · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:13 am

LostRenegade wrote:

moose wrote:

It sounds like you have too much clevis lift.

The clevis lift is at 1/2".

if your ubj is smacking, you've got too much something. reducing the clevis and just using the upper plate may give you enough, or the other way around. however, i'm not an expert...

LostRenegade · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:21 pm

With the rain that we had today, everything got real quiet.

KJ-BOL · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:41 pm

LostRenegade wrote:

With the rain that we had today, everything got real quiet.

maybe it got washed away??

q50055 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:36 pm

Try tightening the sway bar end links - always does it for me.

LostRenegade · **Posted:** Sat Dec 09, 2006 2:55 pm

I did some work on it and tightened down the swaybar links. It helped some, but it looks like it is mostly coming from the driver side upper ball joint. The joint has considerable play in it. So I just ordered a set of Jeepin Al's A-Arms. :lol:

Ann Arbor, MI Troubleshooting

Who is online