Suspension Noises

[HeNry2kOoL]

For the past few years, my car creaks (it's a low tone noise, not a high pitch squeak) when going over speed bumps or even when backing out of my driveway where the car has to go through uneven pavement, and it's been getting progressively worst. It would creak in both the front and back suspension when going over speed bumps, and sometimes it would creak slightly when accelerating from a stop or braking to a stop. It usually happens the worst during the winter season or whenever it's cold outside, it usually doesn't happen during the summer. Now I noticed when I make moderately hard turns (while the car is still cold, about 5 mins after leaving the house), I would hear a pop or a 'bucking' noise from the front suspension.

Now I'm wondering what the cause of the noises would be. The front and back sway bar bushings? Strut mounts? As for the pop noise when making a hard turn, could that be related to the same thing or could that be my CV joint? My struts seems to be ok as the car doesn't bounce when I firmly press it down on each corner.

[alotawatts]

I think you have the right idea with sway bar bushings. On my Civic they have a high pitched noise when it gets cold.
Spray some silicon lube on the bushings and report back ?

[HeNry2kOoL]

I've sprayed some WD-40 onto the front bushings, but I don't think it penetrated in far enough as it still creaks just as much. I would probably have to take them off and lube the inside, if I do that I would probably just get new bushings in the process.

Could it also be the lower control arm bushings?

[timebuilder]

Unless you have Nitrile or Urethane bushings, and almost nobody does except for extreme tuner suspensions, don't put any petroleum based sprays on suspension bushings. Use silicone spray only, or some other non-petroleum based compound designed for the purpose. Petroleum based products are solvents to most rubber parts, unless the rubber being used is specifically formulated to stand up to petroleum products.

I only used silicone spray.

[alotawatts]

Yup WD-40 is really a Water Displacement spray more than a lube.

[HeNry2kOoL]

I have a suspicion that it may also be the endlink bushings. If it is, how hard would it be to replace those?

I also discovered a small tear on the the passenger outer cv boot with a bit of clean grease coming out of it, there's no mess around the boot or the inner rim of my wheel, which makes me believe it may have been torn just recently. I've also tried to replicate the pop noise (while the car was warm) by making several full hard turns with acceleration in an empty parking lot, but nothing came out of it. So I'm still not sure if that's related to my suspension noise or if it's my cv joint.

[DarkMastyr]

Not sure about a Gen2, but here's my writeup on a Gen3. Not too hard.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t174797.html

[marc780]

Yup WD-40 is really a Water Displacement spray more than a lube.

You are absolutely right about that. If you read the can, nowhere does it claim to be a lubricant! But people dont realize this - i used to work in a bicycle store and had to tell them WD-40 is not a lubricant (and it won't lubricate their chain) - the point is that everybody seems to have a can of this stuff lying around somewhere, so it gets used as a lubricant on everything from guns to car hinges, yet it isn't. Works great on cleaning tar off your car etc. but its NOT a lubricant.