Hello all, not sure if this is suspension related but figured id give it a shot. I finished putting in water pump this weekend. Day after installing i am having a creak/groan noise when going over uneven pavement on the driver front wheel. Sounds like its during rotation at low speeds. I do not hear it going over speedbumps. It make the noise occasionally (rarely) when braking and when turning wheel to right when parking other than that its very inconsistent. When i had the car jacked up to install the water pump i had the passenger front wheel up and all other wheels on the ground. I can replicate the noise only when i literally push the car side to side and not push it from directly on the hood. Im ruling out struts but this noise was not here on friday, installed pump on saturday and drove it for the first time monday to hear this noise. Its been raining here every day so its hard to yank the wheel off and inspect. thanks for any ideas

 

usually a bushing that makes that noise. because you jacked one side i would look at the sway bars and end links for binding.

 

thanks for responding craby. All the bushings are old so i guess ill start knocking those out of the way. What would a binding bushing look like? I tried to google it and didnt get much results. Im assuming it would be pinched. Would a bad sway bar bushing make more of a clunk sound or the groan/creak noise i get?

 

i would look at the end links to see how rusted they are. if rusted in a certain angle and it was pushed past its normal travel it may be binding there. try having someone make the noise while you try to track it down. could try squirting some water on each area/bushing to see if it will stop so you can find the problem area.

 

ok good deal, just ordered the end links and the sway bushings to install when they come in. I noticed the sound goes away after a mile or so of driving it (warm weather), so weird. Nothing looks out of the norm under there either. I will try to track the sound out again.