Strange issue. A-arm or shock binding?
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,929
Likes: 1
From: Chelsea, Michigan
Strange issue. A-arm or shock binding? Ill try to give as many details as possible.
I bought this car about 2-3 weeks ago. I drove it back home which is about a 2 hour drive. The car is bone stock down to the paper filter.
The front right tire is worn on the outside (seems like a bad ball joint but given the "tires shake" both up and down and side to side it doesn't seem to have any play.
No noises the entire way home. Quiet as a mouse.
I just cut the springs and installed new shocks (gaberial's from autozone)
Now I am getting a clunking, poping noise from the front right.
When i hit pot holes it REALLY slams on that side. Drivers side is fine.
I also installed a new strut mount thinking that was the issue. Didn't fix it.
When I jack the car up from the k member, there is a creaking noise coming from (what sounds like the upper a arm bushings)
I find it hard to believe the "new" shock/strut is junk out of the box. I also find it hard to believe the upper a arms are having an issue all of a sudden it is lowered. Ill attach a video below. Hope it helps and I can get this figured out.
Thanks all!
Car has 117k miles.
I bought this car about 2-3 weeks ago. I drove it back home which is about a 2 hour drive. The car is bone stock down to the paper filter.
The front right tire is worn on the outside (seems like a bad ball joint but given the "tires shake" both up and down and side to side it doesn't seem to have any play.
No noises the entire way home. Quiet as a mouse.
I just cut the springs and installed new shocks (gaberial's from autozone)
Now I am getting a clunking, poping noise from the front right.
When i hit pot holes it REALLY slams on that side. Drivers side is fine.
I also installed a new strut mount thinking that was the issue. Didn't fix it.
When I jack the car up from the k member, there is a creaking noise coming from (what sounds like the upper a arm bushings)
I find it hard to believe the "new" shock/strut is junk out of the box. I also find it hard to believe the upper a arms are having an issue all of a sudden it is lowered. Ill attach a video below. Hope it helps and I can get this figured out.
Thanks all!
Car has 117k miles.
Teching In
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 49
Likes: 0
From: Colorado Springs
Man I know the feeling of trouble shooting a noise in the suspension, it gets frustrating after replacing parts with new parts and the noise is still there.... before replacing more parts you could take it into your Chevy dealer near by and they can better inspect the A-arm Ball Joints to see if they need to be replaced, the Chevy dealer from my experience are very good at pin-pointing the noise. -my front sway bar links where worn and had slack in the bushings that where causing noise but looked tight when I lifted the car to look under there, than when I dropped the car back on the tires the sway bar bushings would gap and make noise LOL it is hard to see that with the lowered car.
Hope this helps a little, and good luck Dude
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,929
Likes: 1
From: Chelsea, Michigan
Are you taking about the rubber piece that fits inside the upper mount perfectly before you put the nut on? It might have metal inside of it but it's coated in rubber? If so yes it's on.
Clunking indicates ball joints to me. I had a clunk in my truck, especially when turning, and the ball joints were completely shot. I'm not a fan of Gabriel shocks, but I doubt that's the problem. The old worn out shocks were most likely masking the problem you have now.
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I have a funny story on this that led to a shockingly simple solution on three different vehicles. On one, I had torn the whole front end down no less than seven times before I found it. On the second one, I did two full teardowns before I thought of it. Third one, I went straight to it.
The center shock bolt wasn't tight enough. it was snug, and I hadn't wanted to overtighten it. I ended up cranking down on it. Solved the noises on all three vehicles. Worth a try before tearing into a bunch of stuff. Nothing like doing a full tear down to find out the top shock bolt was loose and I didn't need to tear anything down to fix it.
The center shock bolt wasn't tight enough. it was snug, and I hadn't wanted to overtighten it. I ended up cranking down on it. Solved the noises on all three vehicles. Worth a try before tearing into a bunch of stuff. Nothing like doing a full tear down to find out the top shock bolt was loose and I didn't need to tear anything down to fix it.
If I read the OP's initial post, he "cut the springs". Was this in order to lower the car? If so, did you loosen the nuts and bolts on the upper a-arms, and rotate the arms a little to allow them to sit in the new orientation they'll have, with the cut springs? If not, that's what you might be hearing...the bolts/bushings are twisting, trying to find their new "home".