Bushing bad after 60k Miles?

[Bron]

The strut top mount can definitely be replaced. I actually bought a LH one a while back thinking one of ours was bad. Turned out it wasn't and we replaced the whole strut with coilovers sooner after, so I still have this brand new LH side one, if anybody needs one: GENUINE Front Suspension Strut Mount LH for Genesis G70 Stinger 18-22 ,1Pcs | eBay

If I were you, I would do some tests to see if you can isolate the creaking to a particular location. Start by looking for a speed bump that you can roll over only on one side of the car. A block of 2x4 makes an excellent speed bump. Listen to see if you can tell any difference between the two sides. Next, remove the front wheels and disconnect the anti-roll bar end links. Takes two nuts. Repeat the same speed bump test. IF the creaking is gone, then you know it's likely the anti-roll bars. Otherwise, by decoupling the two front suspensions, you should be able to tell which side - or both - are creaking. Have a person stand next to the speed bump, while you slowly roll over it. Might be easier to hear it, than you sitting in the car, even with the windows down.

This is great advice, thank you! I think Andrei and I have different problems but this is definitely something both of us can try. Do you really need to take the wheel off to get to the sway bar end link?

This video at 2:20 is exactly what I'm hearing now with the thud. The strut mount before it was replaced was this sound but louder. The video is all about sway bar links. But I just spoke to the dealer and they claim they checked the links. So I have no f****ing idea now.

 

[Volfy]

This is great advice, thank you! I think Andrei and I have different problems but this is definitely something both of us can try. Do you really need to take the wheel off to get to the sway bar end link?

This video at 2:20 is exactly what I'm hearing now with the thud. The strut mount before it was replaced was this sound but louder. The video is all about sway bar links. But I just spoke to the dealer and they claim they checked the links. So I have no f****ing idea now.

You might be able to get at the anti-roll bar nut with the car sitting on the ground and steering crank all the way one direction for one side, and then all the way the other end for the other side. I've never tried it. At home, I've got several floor jacks, a big air compressor and a pneumatic impact wrench... 5 dagadaga's and wheel comes right off, so I've always just done it that way.

BTW, you only have to disconnect one nut on each swaybar link. Swing the end link so it isn't hitting anything. You don't want to drive the car like that. Just up and down the driveway a short distance over a piece of 2x4 is what I would do.

For me and our relatively new Stinger and G70, we've had a couple of times where the front suspension clunked. One turned out to be a loose strut top nut. The other was a loose ant-roll bar nut. Both times were after we had worked on the suspension, installing lowering springs and such. My son and I thought for sure we had torqued them all, but in reality... we rushed it and didn't double check at every step. Happens to us all.

 

[Bron]

Well my ordeal is still on going. Dealership asked to keep my car for a 3rd day but they asked me to come do a ride along because they can't hear or find anything. Rode with their main tech and he finally heard the noise too. Not sure why it's taken 3 days to diagnosis this. The tech said that his first thought is the sway bar end links.... Which is exactly what I told them to look at after Snicklefritz's post 2 days ago. I even sent the service advisor this video which is EXACTLY the noise I'm hearing. Also, the strut mount thud noise sounded just like this only much louder. (Noise at 2:20 in video)

 

[Bron]

I'm clearly losing my mind and not sure why I posted that video twice...

Dealership is now replacing my right strut. I think they are grasping at straws but whatever.

 

[Snicklefritz]

I'm clearly losing my mind and not sure why I posted that video twice...

Easy to explain. "The human memory is a fallible device ..."

 

[Ah GetFd]

Do you guys down there just walk everywhere? Up here where we drive to our bathrooms, 10k miles is the average a year.
maybe this is just my opinion, but any modern car should last 100k miles without major. Bushings, if that's even my problem, maybe not 100k but 60k or less and I think cheap quality parts.

But more to the point. The bushing LOOK fine. Dealership and an independent mechanic said so, and I've crawled under and looked myself. I suppose it's possible that the outsides look okay but the insides are gone. I don't know enough of the anatomy of bushings to know better.

Do we walk everywhere?

I will take that as a compliment

You can fit the whole USA inside of Australia........or the whole of Europe.

You aren't so big. You just have 330 million jammed into it when we have just 27 million.

So it turned out to be the sway bar link kit?

Well that's the first thing I would have looked at. They fall out faster in a GM product than any other car. I replaced at least a half dozen in my time of owning "Commodores"

I am surprised you got 60,000 miles out of them..............

 

[Bron]

Do we walk everywhere?

I will take that as a compliment

It is.

Car hasn't been fixed yet, but the dealership has ordered a new strut. We will see if that finally fixes it.

 

[Ah GetFd]

It is.

Car hasn't been fixed yet, but the dealership has ordered a new strut. We will see if that finally fixes it.

It's a shitty little item. I remember putting the first Commodore in to the dealer thinking the front end was falling out and it was the link bush that had ruptured. Since then I bought the kits and changed them myself on two other Commodores one being the "Pontiac G8 V8" sold as a Commodore SSV here........you could do the fit yourself. They are about 50 bucks.

 

[bfglitch]

You can fit the whole USA inside of Australia

Might want to double check that. Aus is 7.68 mill km2, US is 9.83 mill km2

 

[Ah GetFd]

I bet you googled it

Left out an island or two....

 

[bfglitch]

I bet you googled it

Left out an island or two....

If you want to get that specific, contiguous km2 of the US is 8 mill km2. Still larger, but not by much. And yes I googled it because I have more important things to memorize.

 

[Bron]

This was an unexpected turn for the thread

 

[Ah GetFd]

I was thinking of going to the USA but I might skip it and do Europe again.

 

[Bron]

Steering this back to the point....

I got my car back from the dealer on Thursday. They think the strut has gone bad. It's now Monday and the noise has gotten very bad. Every little bump is now a loud thunk. It may be my imagination but I feel like the left strut is now making noise as well.
This dealership has proven to be completely incompetent and I do not trust them to fix the problem correctly.

I find it too much of a coincidence that the control arms, strut mounts and strut would all fail at the same time without something causing them to fail. Does anyone have any idea as to what could cause these to fail simultaneously?

 

[oddball]

Hit a curb? Moose? Person? Small animal?

It happens.

A lot of extra stress is placed on all the other parts when one part fails. They work together to keep the wheel in place, so if, e.g., the strut mount is wasted, then the control arm bushings now have extra forces on them which will tear them up quicker.

 

[Bron]

Hit a curb? Moose? Person? Small animal?

It happens.

A lot of extra stress is placed on all the other parts when one part fails. They work together to keep the wheel in place, so if, e.g., the strut mount is wasted, then the control arm bushings now have extra forces on them which will tear them up quicker.

Haven't hit any people... It's not a mustang.

And that makes complete sense. Im wondering if I should be demanding that this dealership replace everything possible. I've been driving on this for 4 months because of their incompetence.

 

[Volfy]

Since you bought the car with 57k miles on it, it's not always easy to tell what was done to the car by previous owner(s). The car could look fine and perfectly stock, but there could have been lots of mod work done to it previously, but everything was put back to stock before the car was sold.

Reason I mentioned this is because one of the common mistake folks make when modifying suspension is not tighten/torque the bushing bolts with the car resting at ride height. This actually takes some planning and extra work to accomplish. It would actually be much easier to torque it all down while the car is up on lifts, with the suspension fully extended down. That is VERY VERY bad for the bushings, as they would be clocked wrong after the car is put back onto terra firma. You might not feel anything for a period of time, but the bushings are now under severe constant torsion and certain failure will be just a matter of time. Soon the bushings reach plastic deformation and can no longer hold the control arms in proper suspension. They then move around excessively, causing noise and odd handling.

If the PO had replaced the stock suspension back on the car, they might not have cared to do it properly, well... because they were gonna trade it in shortly anyway.

Do I know this is what happened to your car? Of course not. I haven't a clue. Simply answering you question of what could have caused the bushings to fail. And, yes, I have seen folks do this sort of thing before.

When I shop for used cars, I always look under the car - all around - not only to spot damages or prior repairs, but also to check for witness marks on all the suspension components and major structural bolts and nuts. If any of the marks don't line up, that means those fasteners were R&R'ed at least once. I would want to pay attention to those areas and scrutinize for evidence of things like what I mentioned above.

 

[Bron]

That's a great write up, thank you. I have seen a few posts about noises from the suspension ending up being caused by not torquing properly. This was a good explanation of why.

I actually have the (mis)fortune of knowing that my car belonged to a YouTuber and was fairly modified and he did return it to mostly stock. But suspension wasn't one of the things he modified.

 

[Bron]

Well that took over 40 hours of just "diagnostics" to finally determine the problem was a bad strut. That's on top of the time to replace the control arms and the strut mounts, which were both done on separate occasions.

The problem seems to be fixed now. Only drove it about 10 miles but the noises are gone. The ride is very stiff though. Since this problem started as soon as I bought the car, I don't know if the stingers ride is just stuff or there is still a fault somewhere. But for now, I can get back to modding this thing and enjoying it!

Thank you everyone who commented and helped out! I really appreciate it.

 

[diddy60]

You might be right on the 3 plus the strut mount. I had the strut mount replaced and it helped with the thud sound I was having. It was definitely not what I would describe as a squeek though. Replacing the lower control arms helped with the noise that could be described as a squeek.
FYI apparently replacing the strut mount is not something the average DIY mechanic should attempt, from what I've read.

I'm having a noise on my left side wen turning the wheel that way. If I'm pulling out of a parking spot nd turn my wheel left I get a noise that sounds like a door open nd closing smh. My question is I see I have 2 control arms. Which one did u change? The straight one or the one that's curved a little bit.