ok guys i have one i never had to deal with. a buddy came over and said his 05 impala left front steering area was making a noise. i took the wheel off fan did the normal tests for bad ball joints and the seemed to be ok no ripped boots no dust around them to show possible failure. so i did the same type of test on the rubber vertical type rubber part the lower control arms have at the front of the control arms. the drivers side has a tear along both ends front and back the PS looked to be in better shape. he did not complain about the PS making noise.

so all i can think of is that mounting point is behaving like motor mounts do when they fail and the engine start making noises. so before i just order parts for him i figure maybe some here have dealt with his and can shed some light on this for me. i just have never had to mess with lower or upper control arms before. disregard the grease as he insisted on dabbing grease on them to see if it helps. i don't think so but he wanted that so i did that for him.

also the tie rod ends were good and greased i did give them another shot for good measure.

one other thing is the upper strut bearings. i have had those make squeaking noise when turning but not when going straight. he is complaining when going straight and hitting normal divits in the road.

so if anyone has dealt with this before please pass on some ideas. i guess i can just get soem lower arms and put them in for good measure but then if he still has that noise that was a waste of time and money.

thanks.

 

What kind of noise is it? Is it a squeak or a banging type of noise? A squeak could be the control arm bushings and a bang could be the sway bar bushings or loose strut mounting bolts. It's a p[lace to start looking.

 

hi i do not know as he stopped over and told me it was making a noise i pushed on the front on each corner and no noise. i jacked it up and the put the jack under the ball joints and lifted a bit to see any movement and nothing. so i put the jack under the front of the lower arm and by the vertical mounting point and that did mover a lot and the rubber looks to be torn kind of like some front lower motor mounts that get worn and then tend to rub the steel mounting points. but i did not see any places that looked like the arm was rubbing anyplace. but it was rusted up bad. the right side was better.

i had him turn the wheels and i looked up at the strut bearings and did not see any out of the normal movements and i felt with my fingers and did not feel any vibrations in the strut mount bearing area. he showed me a Yt video on his phone that they described that noise as they pushed the lower wheel area in and out and that noise he said sounded like what he hears. but i did not see and worn lower horizontal mounting issues i put a bar in that area and tried to get some movements and nothing, then the front mount and that has lots of movement and the lower ball joint and that was tight. the sway bar is not connected anymore it has long rusted off and is not attached to the arms. and the sway bar mounts are not even close to hitting.

i asked him to send me the link to the noise he thinks it is so i can listen to it on the YT and try to see what they're saying that is. i did spray some wd40 on the strut bearings and he insisted that i dab some grease on the lower arm front mounting rubber area, i told him it was pointless but he's the boss for this job so i did.

anyway because i did not hear the noise in person i can't say for sure. and he did tell me on his way home the noise went away. so taking the grease out of the picture i wonder if he has bad strut bearings. if he says the noise comes back before we thear into parts i will have him spray the bearings again and then see it the noise goes away again if so then i think we found it..

if he sends me that YT i will link it here for you to check out and maybe then can help confirm what it may be.

thanks