I am trying to track down the source of a sharp creaking somewhere in my front passenger's side wheel well.

With the front of the car up on jacks, I can create the sound by moving the wheel through its turn radius. I tried an el-cheapo mechanic's scope (i.e. dowl rod) on the balljoint and the tie rod end, but didn't hear anything.

When I put the dowl to the Bilstein HD shocks, I get a louder clicking sound! Can shocks fail this way? They are 20k miles old, no leakage and still firm.

Thanks!

Dan

Sounds loke you might have bad lower ball joints, are they missing the seals on them?

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Thanks for the reply mercedesdoc, I really appreciate it.

I tried the mechanic's scope on the ball joint and the tie rod end and heard nothing. There is almost no vertical or horizontal play in the tire, and the dust boot is still on the ball joint.

I can hear/feel the clicking the most on the top of the strut mount, where the strut is affixed to the body in the engine compartment. The mounts are shot (can see daylight through the cracks ) so i'll replace them sometime in the end of the week. Hopefully a dissassembly of the mounts will yield some new light.

Anybody have any further thoughts?


Dan

check also the springs some do break (on the lower arm side)

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Thanks for the suggestion cc260. I'll make sure to do that when I replace the strut mounts, but it seems unlikely because the springs are not moving when the wheel is tested when the car is up on jacks.

20,000 miles seems really soon for Bilstein HD's to fail, but the noise does seem to be coming from inside the strut, or hopefully the strut mount.

I'll update this post when the mounts come in the mail.

Dan