creaking noise..

[jackfrost1031]

I have an 88 camry v6 LE.

whenever I go over a bump at low speed, or set down in the car quickly, or give it gas and let the front end raise and then lower, i hear a creaking sound. I think it's probably a strut. The sound comes from the front driver side. Its gotten worse this past week. The car has aboot 175k miles on it, is that fairly standard for strut life?


if it is indeed a strut, I want to put some tokicos or KYB gr2s on it, but can I do that without having to put on drop springs? I value my ground clearance, since I like to drive on some old gravel roads with some bad dips and such, and am afraid of scraping as it is, a lowering wouldn't help matters.

Thanks.

[Nick]

its probably dried up boushings, control arm, swaybar end links, that kind of thing

get some white lithium grease and lube her up

[jackfrost1031]

would driving through muddy water and such aggravate the dried up shits?

Also, are urathane bushing etc available?

[jackfrost1031]

I bought some white lithium grease and sprayed all the rubber I could find on the front end and the back end too for good measure, but I still have the problem. I bounced the front end around while underneath it and hears a sound like a squishing, like a fluid moving around when it creaked.

[situman]

it could be the lower ball joints. same thing happened to my old accord.

[jackfrost1031]

Is there a way to check without taking everything apart?

[situman]

press on the side of the car tat makes teh noise. as it compresses and rebounds it should creak
or u can go to ur mechanic. I didnt kno until i did my inspection. o yea when it gets worse, it makes tat noise as u turn ur steering wheel too.

[adjag]

Try this , undo the tie-rod end on the side makeing noise, 17mm nut with cotter pin, after undoing see if noise is still there, if gone ,slide boot down for steering rack and work grease into ball socket on end of rack, can also have someone bounce car ,while you hold rack-end and see if you feel noise in rack-end. Socket dries out sometimes and makes noise.

[jackfrost1031]

I feel stupid, but I have to say this.

I can't get my wheel off, I loosened the lugs, jacked it up, removed the lugs, and then attempted to pull the wheel off and it wouldn't move. I was afraid to pull REALLY hard since it was balancing on a jack, but I put a descent amount of my body weight on it pulling it.

Not sure what that means, so I put the nuts back on, lowered it, and tehn re tightened...

Oh, how much play should there be in the wheel when you rotate it up in the air? Like, how many degrees.

[steve97]

Sounds like there is a layer of rust build up between your wheel and hub. Not uncommon for cars, especially if it hasn't been taken off for a while.

Had a Honda CRX whose wheel was frozen on unbelievably tight. Had to jack the car up on a level surface, and sit down on the ground next to the tire and give it some tough kicks (kicked more to the left and right side of the tire than up and down, to prevent unnecessary rocking of the car) to free the wheel.

When I got it unstuck, it was unbelievable what a small film of rust can do to hold a tire to a car. Felt like I could have ran without the lug nuts, it was on there so tight. (Obvisously not a good idea)

Good luck, be safe!

Or another idea, pull into one of those garages (firestone, tuffy) that advertise free brake inspection. Let them do the work for you, listen to their speech. Then take the car home and now your wheels will come off easily, since they did all of the hard work!

[jackfrost1031]

Thanks, I'll try that..

Funny how that wheel was the last one off, which was about a month ago when i replaced a steelie with an alloy..

oh well, off to the jack.