Creaking noise.

[phillev]

Hi, having now had my car for a couple of months it's developed a creak from the offside front. We have had a look at everything underneath and nothing appears to be worn and the car has only just hit 4k. I first noticed it at work as where I park it as the front wheel sits on a peice of dipped tarmac and when the wheel drops into it you can hear a definite creak when the car is crawling strangely though only when I reverse but not going forward, tried a few speed humps yesterday at low speed and no noise at all so I'm a bit mystified. If anyone has any ideas I'd be grateful thanks.

[phillev]

Obviously I've stumped everyone, trust me to have a unique issue 😞 I had another listen yesterday and you can even pick the noise up faintly from outside the car it just sounds like an old door being opened really slowly a muffled creak but it only does it going into the sunken tarmac not going out of it. I've tried bumpy roads speed humps all at low speed and can't get the car to replicate it under normal driving conditions.

[Bob110023]

Hi Phill. Does the noise go when the weather is wet. If so it could be a rubber on the anti roll bar which has dried out or something similar. 

[phillev]

I'm thinking it could be the ARB's but it's been so dry just lately I can't answer that question. My work car park is also full of potholes that I try and avoid but even crawling along and letting the car basically roll in and out of one doesn't induce the noise. I've also not found anything on any of the latest triplets regarding any front suspension issues at all they seem pretty bullet proof, my car has done so few miles that all my suspension components look nearly new.

[Gerg]

I had a vaguely similar situation on a Nissan many years back.  On that car it was the chassis twisting slightly (normally) and the bonnet was not moving with it, so the bonnet was creaking against it's rubbers, my MX5 is prone to this too, especially if any polish has got on to these rubbers.

On an even older Peugeot I identified a creak as the door lock moving slightly on their striker plates when the body twisted; if WD40 (which I wouldn't normally recommend for this application) was sprayed on the lock the noise stopped immediately for some weeks or months.

On our Auris, a weird suspension graunch noise was stopped by the spraying of general purpose silicone oil (Lidl supplied, as it happens) onto the front A-frame (console) bushes. But not before both strut top bearing mounts had been changed under warranty.

[phillev]

I'm going to spray the suspension components with silicone grease at some point this week as I've been told it's non harmful to bushes and rubber components unlike petroleum based products. It's not a noise the dealer will pick up I'm sure, they're next to useless!

[Gerg]

I understand that it is a great rubber preservative, but on certain hard plastics can cause them to age/degrade prematurely.

There is now a WD40 branded silicone oil spray that is widely sold, but a boat chandlers is another option if you can't find any (unlikely).

It's extremely water repellent, so don't get it near your eyes!!.

[phillev]

It's supposed to be safe on all rubber and plastics unlike other petroleum based products and being a grease it should have lasting properties unlike a normal silicon spray. I'm even wondering if the spring seat may be dry as it sounds very much like the sort of noise a spring would make, shame it doesn't do it on the road.

[phillev]

Just a quick update having sparingly lubed the arm bushes, anti roll bar and links the noise appears to have gone. I spoke to Toyota tech and he was sure it was probably the anti roll bar bush probably due to the fact the car although three years old was left sitting for long periods of time and the mileage so low, not always a good thing.