Bad Squeaks

[MCH86GN]

Alright, I have UMI front upper and lower control arms. I have and HNR parts rear upper and lower controls and swaybar. However, my car is squeaky and it is annoying as hell. It is to the point that I don't won't to drive it. Front springs are new as well. I guess I could replace the shocks, but that might not fix the damn squeaking. I would like to find someone local who can help and take a ride. But is there any suggestions. I take the car to track sometime, but more often than not it is on the road and it sounds like hell.

 

[charlief1]

My guess is that you've got poly bushings in the arms, right?

 

[OhioC5]

I understand what you're feeling. My front brakes were making a terrible rattling, felt like I was driving a 200 dollar turd. Everything up front is new too. I didn't want to drive the car, it was annoying and kind of embarrassing. It took me a minute to nail down where the noise was coming from too. Turns out a clip fell off of the inside pad and was rattling around inside the caliper.

Keep at it, you'll figure it out. Can you grease your bushings?

 

[MCH86GN]

My guess is that you've got poly bushings in the arms, right?

Charlie in the front it is possible. They are UMI, the rear are H-N-R. The rear control arms were just put on and that did eliminate some of the squeaking in the rear end. In the front when I push up and down on the bumper, I don't hear anything, but when driving and I hit the slightest bump it is bad. This is southeastern Michigan, where the roads a notoriously bad so on some roads it is all squeaking. In the rear, before the installation of the H-N-R, the stock bushings had to be toast because I would hear squeaking really bad. Just by pushing the rear bumper down. After the swap out now I only hear a noise on the passenger's side rear end and that most definitely sounds like the shock. Just to recap, I don't remember my car squeaky in the front at all until I replaced the upper and lower control arms and added the big swaybar, in the rear, from FT. I don't know why I removed the stock ones, they were fine. I guess I figured the weight savings or UMI looked so much nicer than the stock ones. Live and learn.
Thanks for the input.

 

[MCH86GN]

I understand what you're feeling. My front brakes were making a terrible rattling, felt like I was driving a 200 dollar turd. Everything up front is new too. I didn't want to drive the car, it was annoying and kind of embarrassing. It took me a minute to nail down where the noise was coming from too. Turns out a clip fell off of the inside pad and was rattling around inside the caliper.

Keep at it, you'll figure it out. Can you grease your bushings?

It really does suck and it is embarrassing. Because my 14 year old S-10 with 180K miles on it sounds 10x better than my GN. I think in the rear my passenger's shock might have a problem. I think the shocks were last replaced in the 1990's. It seems to be all around the car. I might need to change out some body bushings and add some missing ones, I have found out not to use the poly bushings. This coming weekend, I will be going to a Turbo Buick Meet, sponsored by Aggressive Performance. I hope I get a lot of input. I probably won't do anything about right away, except for the simple stuff like grease the front upper and lower control arms. I also used synthetic grease on the front upper and lower and I am wondering if that hurt the bushings. I know there are explicit instructions from H-N-R about using synthetic grease with their bushings, it says not to that it could possibly ruin the bushings. I'm sure with some time and money I will figure it out. I also have to consider that my car has almost been on the street for 29 years old, as it was purchased in November of 1985. One lesson I have learned is that in a car that is mostly street driven, don't start putting go fast parts on it, because it can make for an unpleasant ride.

 

[Tony N]

I just had my umi upper and lower installed as well. Entire front end new. Mine doesn't start squeaking till after of 30-40 minutes of driving. I'm guessing it's the right side were the DP, I
think it's the temperature of the pipe. Everything works fine the car rides and steers like new but I'm having the same issue were you able to get rid of the squeaking? If so how or if any particular grease that was used etc.?

 

[MCH86GN]

I just had my umi upper and lower installed as well. Entire front end new. Mine doesn't start squeaking till after of 30-40 minutes of driving. I'm guessing it's the right side were the DP, I
think it's the temperature of the pipe. Everything works fine the car rides and steers like new but I'm having the same issue were you able to get rid of the squeaking? If so how or if any particular grease that was used etc.?

Unfortunately no. My car is at a body shop right now getting fixed, some asshole decided to hit my passenger's side mirror and door during the Woodward Dream Cruise and then it got hit by a rock which scratched it, all in the same day. I originally used synthetic grease from Autozone. Not sure that was the best grease to use. I was planning on greasing them again with regular grease once I get the car back and see if that helps. I noticed that the lower control arm doesn't have any grease coming out of the sides. I don't have my instructions with for the UMI upper and lowers, does it say whether to use synthetic grease or regular. If I can't get the noise to go away, I may replace them with stock upper and lowers. They may be a little heavier, but at least the bushings are rubber and they don't squeak.

 

[Tony N]

Unfortunately no. My car is at a body shop right now getting fixed, some asshole decided to hit my passenger's side mirror and door during the Woodward Dream Cruise and then it got hit by a rock which scratched it, all in the same day. I originally used synthetic grease from Autozone. Not sure that was the best grease to use. I was planning on greasing them again with regular grease once I get the car back and see if that helps. I noticed that the lower control arm doesn't have any grease coming out of the sides. I don't have my instructions with for the UMI upper and lowers, does it say whether to use synthetic grease or regular. If I can't get the noise to go away, I may replace them with stock upper and lowers. They may be a little heavier, but at least the bushings are rubber and they don't squeak.

 

[Tony N]

That blows sorry to hear that as far as the control arms they come pre-greased from umi as per the instructions. As I stated mine don't start squeaking till after about 30 min of driving. I re-greased them with regular grease when it became constant and it went away but as I said after driving for a while starts squeaking again. I think I've narrowed it down to the passenger upper and of course the DP is there so I'm guessing the temperature of the DP is having something to do with it. I'm going to wrap my DP to reduce temperature in the engine bay and re-grease the upper with a Lucas grease called red n tacky it's formulated with some anti -seize. Hopefully this will correct it.

 

[1KWIKSIX]

Sorry to hear of your squeaky problems guys.

I replaced all my body bushings (cushions) with reproduction rubber bushings (didn't want to go poly here because I have H&R's poly motor mounts / tranny mount & did not want too much more vibration) and found this to be an amazing improvement in how the car felt . Got rid of a lot of squeaks immediately & tightened up the feel too. This was without a doubt one project that gave me " the best bang for the buck".

I've got UMI's tubular lower front control arms installed & don't have any squeaking issues....however, I went with Delrin bushings & not the polyurethane ones. Heard far too many complaints about this issue ahead of time & made sure I wasn't gonna face the same. Maybe you can contact UMI & see if the poly bushings can be changed over to their Delrin bushings?

For my upper tubular control arms , went with GBody's that feature greasable spherical steel bushings that won't be affected by the heat from the down pipe.

Have had these installed for over a year with no problems & am quite happy with my choices.

 

[Tony N]

I have the Delrin bushings in mine so I'm good as far as that goes.

 

[MCH86GN]

Sorry to hear of your squeaky problems guys.

I replaced all my body bushings (cushions) with reproduction rubber bushings (didn't want to go poly here because I have H&R's poly motor mounts / tranny mount & did not want too much more vibration) and found this to be an amazing improvement in how the car felt . Got rid of a lot of squeaks immediately & tightened up the feel too. This was without a doubt one project that gave me " the best bang for the buck".

I've got UMI's tubular lower front control arms installed & don't have any squeaking issues....however, I went with Delrin bushings & not the polyurethane ones. Heard far too many complaints about this issue ahead of time & made sure I wasn't gonna face the same. Maybe you can contact UMI & see if the poly bushings can be changed over to their Delrin bushings?

For my upper tubular control arms , went with GBody's that feature greasable spherical steel bushings that won't be affected by the heat from the down pipe.

Have had these installed for over a year with no problems & am quite happy with my choices.

I replaced, should I say added, the number 3, 4 and 7 lower body bushings and a lot of squeaks and rattles went away. That was the cheapest investment I have put in the car and gotten the greatest return. There is a night and day differences. However, once I put the lower body bushings in I was then able to hear squeaks in the front. My car is at the body shop right now, but once I get it back I am going grease the bushings really well and see if that helps. If not, I'm more or less stuck with the squeaks until I have the extra money to replace them. I still have my stock uppers, but I ruined my stock lowers trying to remove the bushing. I have seen the stock upper and lowers for sale somewhere or maybe I will look at other vendor's that sell replacements.

 

[Ktbregal]

Poly bushings speak if they aren't greased. I was told by 2 manufacturers that I need to grease with a non petroleum grease!! I was told to grease all bushings before instalation. It's a white clear grease. I'll get the name and let you know. For this reason I only have polygraghite bushings on the rear control arms. ALL THE OTHER ONES ARE OR STYLE. NOT A SQUEAK.

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

 

[Ktbregal]

I found it it is made by Super Lube.

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

 

[Tony N]

I found it it is made by Super Lube.

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

Thanks for posting the info, I checked there website which should be used the High

I found it it is made by Super Lube.

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

Thanks for the info do you recall which one of the two types of grease it was that you used?
Super Lube offers two;
1) High Temp Extreme Pressure Grease 30 degrees - 475 degrees or
2) Nuclear Grade Approved Grease for: rope, chain, pulleys, bearings or anything that rolls or squeaks .

 

[Ktbregal]

I'll have to look when I get home. I believe it was synthetic

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[Tony N]

Figured I'd post the fix to my squeaking problem. It ended up being the right upper control arm bolt was slightly loose therefore creating just enough play to cause the squeaking. There are washers that go behind and in front of the bushing. While wiping excess grease off of the area I discovered that I could turn the washer completely with my finger. Of course I shouldn't have been able to that. All other washers were tight. The bolt on the the upper passenger control arm was slightly loose with just enough play to cause the squeaking. Guessing after a new suspension install and putting some miles on it, it'd be a good idea to give it a once over and retightening all four bushings. Nice and tight no more squeaks.

 

[87geeinn]

The issue is likely your upper control arm shaft nuts being too tight. Let me explain: I recently rebuilt my front end with UMI upper and lowers and used the control arms with Delrin bushings. After the first drive, I noticed the damn car squeaking after about 20 minutes of driving and it would creak and squeak on every little movement of the car. I re-greased all of the bushings and it didn't help. I did some more investigating and determined the noise was coming from my driver side upper control arm. The issue was the cross shaft nuts were on too tight (installed as-is from UMI).

The solution is to take a 15/16" wrench and loosen them up just a bit until you can move the outside washer by hand and then torque them down just to the point where you can't move the washer. The bolts are an interference fit so don't worry about how tight you have them. They are not going to go anywhere.

 

[Tony N]

87geeinn- I'll keep that in mind if it starts squeaking again. Thanks.

 

[MCH86GN]

The issue is likely your upper control arm shaft nuts being too tight. Let me explain: I recently rebuilt my front end with UMI upper and lowers and used the control arms with Delrin bushings. After the first drive, I noticed the damn car squeaking after about 20 minutes of driving and it would creak and squeak on every little movement of the car. I re-greased all of the bushings and it didn't help. I did some more investigating and determined the noise was coming from my driver side upper control arm. The issue was the cross shaft nuts were on too tight (installed as-is from UMI).

The solution is to take a 15/16" wrench and loosen them up just a bit until you can move the outside washer by hand and then torque them down just to the point where you can't move the washer. The bolts are an interference fit so don't worry about how tight you have them. They are not going to go anywhere.

Thanks I will also check this out. I didn't know the torque specs and it is possible that I have all mine too tight. Especially the lower control arm mounts.