Suspension creaking squawking

bushings were torqued at ride height (465mm)

Update #2 for the benefit of this community:

My brand new Eurospare Control Arms were leaking, however, that was not making the clunking noise. Ironically, if it weren't for the clunk I wouldn't have looked under the car to see the dripping oil/grease. So replacing those were a PITA but necessary.

Control arms were replaced a second time with genuine Land Rover control arms from RMEuropean.

The single loud clunk while turning left was caused by a left sway war bushing clamp nut that was loose. This nut is hard to reach without an extra extra deep offset box wrench. Originally I got it pretty tight, but nowhere near the 85 ft/lbs it needs.

Sounds like binding sway bar bushings. Remove clamps, grease the snot out of the bushing with Long Life grease or Viper Lube and reinstall. Had this issue with my Jaguar and it was very annoying going over bumps at slow speed. Creaking and squeeking.

Hazet offset wrench will probably reach it, probably 13mm or 9/16sae. Or buy a cheapo at harbor freight and get it on the bench vise and hammer it into shape.

For swapping the front sway arm bushings, do you crawl under or do it from the side with a wheel off? I know you take the wheel off for the rear.

I noticed in my parking garage at work that my suspension is making a styrofoam sound, and at 86k miles it's probably past due for the sway bar bushings to get changed.

ryanjl said:

For swapping the front sway arm bushings, do you crawl under or do it from the side with a wheel off? I know you take the wheel off for the rear.

I noticed in my parking garage at work that my suspension is making a styrofoam sound, and at 86k miles it's probably past due for the sway bar bushings to get changed.

Click to expand...

I set the truck to offroad height and crawled under for the front.

I'm almost positive I didn't even pull the rear wheels off for that end. Just slithered my arms in from the side.

So I guess there's a backorder on the front sway bar bushings. Of course, I didn't realize this until I got my order from Atlantic British today, after I had taken the afternoon off to do the job.

To the people who've had the sway bar bushings make noise for them in the past: did it also make noise when you were turning the wheel, or was it isolated to suspension bumps?

Little rant: would have been really cool of Atlantic British if they had done something a little more to notify me of the backorder other than bury a mention of it in bottom of an email with the subject line of "your order has shipped," after they had sent me an email acknowledging I placed my order, and after they sent me an email stating "your order is picked and ready to ship," neither of which mentioned anything about a backorder. Maybe just spitballing here, but an email with a subject line talking about the backorder?

I hate to drag AB, because their customer service has always been good in the past, but the fact that their customer service rep on the phone just now copped an attitude sort of put me over the top.

So circling back to this, I should be getting the front bushings from Lucky 8 today. Not too soon, either, as my suspension is making a racket.

Like I mentioned above, though, it's also making the creaking sound when I turn the wheels while the vehicle isn't moving (sounds like metal rubbing against styrofoam). Could this be the sway bar bushings, too? I'm not really sure how it could be, but maybe I'm imagining it all wrong in my head. If not, what else could it be? Down to either ball joints or tie rod ends, right?

So the passenger side was easy.

As I've read online, though, the top part of the driver side is fricken impossible. The front diff is right there in the way. I don't see any way to get at it without removing one of the front diff braces.

@avslash, you say you got it with just a wratcheting box end wrench? I've tried one of those, I've tried a regular box end wrench, and I've tried an offset box end wrench. I've tried getting at it from the left, right, top, and bottom. You can access it all those ways, but you can't turn the wrench at all. I've never had a nut you can see from outside the damn car give me this much trouble.

Wound up giving up on the driver's side for tonight. Just replaced the passenger side bushing and both sway bar links. Will wait to do the driver side until I have time to grind down a socket like this guy did: https://landroverforums.com/forum/lr3-28/lr3-front-sway-bar-bushings-advice-88418/

Regardless, the passenger side bushing didn't look too bad, so my guess is this job has been done before. I bought it at 40k miles, though, so it had to be pretty early on in its life.

This could all be a waste of time. When I test drove it after, the noise still persists, and it sounds like it's coming from the passenger side. Hear it over when the suspension goes up and down and hear it when I'm at a stop and turn the wheel. I'm thinking now it has to be a ball joint or a tie rod. Maybe a control arm bushing, but the lowers were done 22k miles ago. As I said above, it sounds like metal rubbing against styrofoam, with maybe a little metallic rattle thrown in on small bumps. I also only hear the sound with my windows down; when my windows are up, I don't hear it at all. I've also noticed over the last month or so a slight wobble in the steering wheel when I brake from speed. I thought my brake rotors were warping, but that also aligns with either a tie rod or a ball joint. Next step may be to get my wife to turn the wheel back and forth while I crouch down front and try to pinpoint it.

That all said, I didn't see or feel any play at all tonight when I had the front end on jackstands and moved the wheel around with my hands at 9/3 and 12/6. Lower ball joints were replaced with my front control arms about 22k miles ago, so it would probably be the upper. Who knows. I suppose at 88k miles I could be due for new tie rods regardless, but I hate just throwing parts at it and seeing what works.

ryanjl said:

So the passenger side was easy.

As I've read online, though, the top part of the driver side is fricken impossible. The front diff is right there in the way. I don't see any way to get at it without removing one of the front diff braces.

@avslash, you say you got it with just a wratcheting box end wrench? I've tried one of those, I've tried a regular box end wrench, and I've tried an offset box end wrench. I've tried getting at it from the left, right, top, and bottom. You can access it all those ways, but you can't turn the wrench at all. I've never had a nut you can see from outside the damn car give me this much trouble.

Click to expand...

I remember that bolt being a pain, but it's been so long I don't recall exactly what I did.

I think I used a short barreled socket with one or two swivels with a swivel headed ratchet handle. I definitely did not have to grind any tools into a new configuration.

I also remember I did it while laying under the truck.

If you are really stuck, I can play with it tonight and get a picture of a tool configuration that works.