Squeaking From Driverside Front Suspension When Going Over Bumps

April 14, 2013

Any ideas anyone?

My wife's car has developed a rather annoying squeaking noise if you take a speed bump too fast. It came out of nowhere and the car has been out to Mr T's and they said they could see no obvious damage to the suspension. Just a bit annoying as it makes the car sound like a rust heap.

Any ideas at all? And really, why couldn't the engineer at Toyota fix it? They were bereft of ideas

April 14, 2013

Any ideas anyone?
My wife's car has developed a rather annoying squeaking noise if you take a speed bump too fast. It came out of nowhere and the car has been out to Mr T's and they said they could see no obvious damage to the suspension. Just a bit annoying as it makes the car sound like a rust heap.
Any ideas at all? And really, why couldn't the engineer at Toyota fix it? They were bereft of ideas

Hi Alex,

if it were my car, I'd be looking at the anti-roll bar links, or at least the joints at the end of them. The rubber covers on these joints are showing signs of perishing on my motor and I can see that I may well have to replace them soon.

Don't be too hard on the technician at Mr T's. I would rather meet one who was honest enough to say he/she didn't know than one who replaced everything that could possible generate that sort of noise - AT MY EXPENSE!

April 14, 2013

Hi Chris,

You do have a good point there. I never feel comfortable telling mechanics just where to look but I guess it has to be done. I will drop it into a local mechanic if it continues (which I am sure it will) . . . it's due an MOT soon and I'll sort this at the same time

I assume I wouldn't be easily able to check the condition of the drop links?

April 14, 2013

Hi Chris,
You do have a good point there. I never feel comfortable telling mechanics just where to look but I guess it has to be done. I will drop it into a local mechanic if it continues (which I am sure it will) . . . it's due an MOT soon and I'll sort this at the same time
I assume I wouldn't be easily able to check the condition of the drop links?

Hi Alex,

if you jack one side of the car up as if you were going to change a front wheel ( leave the wheels on ) you reach a point where the drop link on the "jacked" side is just changing over from acting in compression to acting in tension. At this point if there is any play in the jacked side you will be able to feel it fairly easily. It will take a little experimenting to determine the exact point where it changes over but it should not be too difficult - probably just before the jacked wheel looses contact with the ground.

Alternatively, put the car on a axle stand at one side ( wheel off the floor ) and use a trolley jack under the suspension arm on the same side to find the point of change over from compression to tension. HTH