Sam! Waiting for you to chime in. What do you think of these LCAs then? What should i do to quiet them down besides keep my mouth shut from complaining? If you say they should be this noisy then, thats i guess what i have to deal with. Other than that, ill entertain any kind of ideas that you have. Ive been waiting to hear from the authority. Mostly sure its from the LCAs not the watts.

 

If you are having noise, I doubt it is from the watts link. Mine is totally quiet on my daily driver. They are made with high quality rod ends & should be quiet for a very long time.

As for rod ended lowers, you have to expect some noise due to the shock loads on them from every bump in the road. If you invest in some very expensive teflon lined rod ends, it will be much quieter, but expect periodic replacement to keep it that way.

I have another car with rod ends in every suspension point front & rear & it sounds like you dropped a handfull of quarters on a concrete floor when you hit a bump. The price you pay for function over comfort...

 

You could try a higher end rod-end. QA1's are tough, but not the most tight tolerance wise. Might want to look at an Aurora or FK. I'm sure it's just rod-end noise.

 

Resurrected from the dead. I wonder if the original poster fixed his noise.

My car developed a squeak over uneven pavement that began to drive me a bit nuts. I figured it had to do with the poly sway bushing or end links. After greasing and replacing them the noise didn't go away.

I disconnected the bar and pushed the car up and down and lo and behold the top rod end in the Watts propeller was making a little noise. When I unbolted the axle side of the arm and could move it around more, it made a pretty terrible loud squeaking noise at the propeller rod end.

I decided to take the other arm off the car to inspect it as well. The rod end of the passenger side that connects to the propeller was nearly completely jammed. The rod ends connecting to the axle on both sides moved very easily and made no noise whatsoever.

At any rate since I didn't have rod ends laying around I tried to clean out the two problem ends with some PBlaster. Got them to move a little better and quiet down. Reinstalled them and at least for the first couple of drives I haven't noticed the noise. I don't know why the two propeller side rod ends would jam up like that and the axle side ends are in near perfect condition.

The car has about 9 months and 4000mi on the Watts and it is a DD so it sees all weather conditions (except perhaps much snow or ice since it is in Houston). Now I don't know if I should just replace the two ends that were giving me a problem now or just disassemble the thing and clean it out twice a year. Not sure what the best method to even clean these things is to keep the lining happy.

Maybe I will try to fashion some dust boots to go over the ends.

 

i literally just got through replacing my rod ends on my poly/rod LCA's from UMI today, and replaced them with roto-joints from UMI this time around (they were not an option 2 - 3 years ago when i got the LCA's). the reason i replaced them is because i was having the same issue as several people here have mentioned, a rattling/clanking over uneven pavement. it actually only ended up being slop in one of the rod ends, i don't want to even think about what it would have sounded like if both rod ends were rattling around back there. there is still just a very TINY amount of noise (as opposed to stock), but it's about 1,000,000,000 times more bearable.....and instead of a "clank" sound now, it's more of a very, very dull "thud".

obviously, rubber bushings are going to be the best for the absolute best in ride comfort, but i'll definitely take this very dull "thud" sound in exchange for the extra rear axle articulation, any day of the week....even on a daily driver like mine is.

so for anyone sitting on the fence about whether or not to replace their rod ends with the roto-joints, just do it....you will be happy. i know i am...especially since i got mine when they were on sale a few weeks ago for 15% off!!

 

Well, as long as the rod ends stay quiet for a while I am set. I don't think the rotojoints would fit in the propeller of the Watts, but they may be able to connect to the axle tubes. Honestly, I had no noise until maybe 3 weeks ago when it started fairly abruptly. Or at least it seemed to. Probably just got loud enough that I could hear it from inside the car. Probably if I can find some sort of cleaning or lubricating solution that won't destroy the rod ends I could just use that every once in a while and it would be fine. Dust boots might make it a moot point too.