heatwave

My 94 Accord has a terrible groaning creak coming from the front right when I turn the wheel at a stop or when I am going over bumps. I had it looked at and they said everything was fine and replaced some bushings and "greased it up" and it was perfect, but literally 24 hours later the squeak was back.

I have sprayed silicon lubricant around the bushings and whatnot and again I get just a temporary fix. From searching here, it seems my lower ball joint probably needs grease. Just how exactly do I go about doing this? Some posts talk about needing a syringe to do it- do I shove the syringe into the black rubber boot or do I grease all around it or what?

And is there any special type of grease that is recommended?

Any other suggestions would be great as well!

dafang

My 91 Accord had your exact same symptoms. I could not figure out problem and kept driving with noise. Eventually the front upper ball joint broke and the wheel fell off. After replacing upper joint and the axle that broke when the wheel fell off, the noise was gone.

RECHECK UPPER BALL JOINT.

propwdialogue

If lithium on all bushings (including upper control arms) does not fix the problem, chances are good its the ball joints. First, make sure that the ball joint boots are good. If they are cracked, tearing or look worn out, replace them. Its a 2 dollar part and worth the piece of mind. Make sure that if they were torn, you check the ball joints to make sure they move correctly and get all of the old and dirty grease off of there before you add the new stuff.

If the boots look good, then just take them off (or move them down enough so you can fit a syringe in there) and re-grease them. This is a cheap and quick fix...definitely worth the effort!

heatwave

I took it in a while ago because I was afraid of catastrophic failure- they said only the rubber donut bushings looked bad and replaced those for cheap. They greased it up and sent me on my way, and I'm sure the shop would have jumped at the chance to tell me I needed new parts!

Can I check them again myself? It's more than just jack up and grab wheel at 12 and 6 and check for looseness right?

Thanks, I'll go look at them and grease it up.

onlyvtec

Actually, to check the upper ball joints all you need is a hand. Slip your hand between the fender and the tire. firmly grasp the steering knuckle just below the upper ball joint. Try to move the knuckle towards the engine bay and then back towards you. If there is ANY play, replace the upper ball joint and/or upper control arm with ball joint.

heatwave

Just checked everything and there's no motion. Greased upper and lower by inserting the needle into the edge of the boot and working it inside. The lower had a small hole in it as grease started coming out after 5 or 6 pumps. All the squeaks are gone though.

Does the squeaking mean the joint itself is bad, or was it because of the grease coming out the hole?

Is it easy to replace the boot?

hdzhonda96

i have a 96 honda accord ex and i have the same problem but i hear the squeak and rattle when i go over speed bumps or drive on loose gravel wut could i do to fix the problem

onlyvtec

Your upper ball joints WOULD have started to fail if you had not greased them. It sounds like you caught them before they started to go bad. I have never seen OEM replacement boots for the ball joints, upper or lower.
hdzhonda96 I would take the tire off of the side with the noise and look around.

heatwave

But what about the lowers? Did the creaking mean they are already failing, or are they only bad when they can move or pop out or whatever? I covered the hole with a think layer of silicon adhesive so hopefully it will seal. I'm not noticing any suspension issues like pulling on brake or anything. Thanks.

onlyvtec

If there is no movement, they are good. The Honda service manual states No movement is allowed for either the upper or lower. The noise you heard was probably letting you know "I'm outta grease".

professorman

How does this greasing procedure work? Do you use a grease gun and push it up in the edge of the rubber boot? Is there enough space there to fit a grease gun nozzle? Or do you use a syringe of some sort? The medical syringe I am thinking of might have too tiny of a needle to allow grease to flow through it. Please elaborate on this procedure. I would like to be able to do it if it is possible.

heatwave

You have to use a syringe tip that is specially made for grease guns. Basically it is a medical syringe with a zerk fitting on the end that fits in the grease gun. Mine was $4 from Advance Auto parts, just check by the grease guns and fittings and it should be there in any part store.

You may be able to make a mess and pack a thicker gauge regular medical syringe with grease and use that, but having the rubber hose from the grease gun is better so you can maneuver around more.

You can fit the needle in between the boot and the metal at the top of the boot. You kind of work it in sideways along the curve of the boot and then angle it down a bit once you're in. Take your time and work it in slowly- it is better not to puncture the boot I think. Once it's in, I moved it forward and down on a slight angle a cm or two so you're in the pocket. Then grease away. You can see the boot fill up with grease and expand- thats when I stopped filling.

I read on a truck forum that guys just puncture the boot with the needle and add a dab of silicon adhesive to the hole, and someone said this is how dealer techs do it as well but who knows.

hdzhonda96

i took off the tire like i was told to do and i checked the boots on both sides left and right i saw that the boots were completely torn almost like if they were sliced with a razor. Would that cause a popping noise when i come to a stop..

onlyvtec

Have you ever seen what a hip joint looks like in the human body? The ball joints in your car look something like that. You have the shaft (where the castle nut goes) and attached to that is a steel "ball". The "ball" sits in a cup where there is grease and a retaining clip to hold it all together. When the "ball" wears down, it will allow for the "ball" to pop out of the cup a little bit. That could be the cause of the noise you are hearing, hdzhonda96. Another part to check with the rattling you have is the sway bar links, as they tend to go bad fairly quickly in the Accords.

hdzhonda96

OnlyVtec is the ball joint your talking about located on the axle arm?..where the boot is supposed to be covering...because both axle arms boots are torn with only a little bit of dirty grease also when we have wet weather water slips inside it and making it slip making a popping noise...what are some options i have in fixing this problem?

sageuvagony

I had the same thing. It was my bushings. I ordered the bushings from Honda, took out my lower control arms in my driveway, took them to a machine shop so they can take out the old ones and press in the new ones. They charged me 20 bucks for pressing in all 4 new bushings which was pretty cheap to me. They took me over to their press machine and did it in front of me. Pretty damn quick. I then installed my lower control arms when I got home.

This all started out as a tiny creaking, then got louder and louder, till eventually it sounded like someone was taking a baseball bat to my suspension any time my car moved up and down. Very embarrassing.

When the creaking has started, I had made the mistake of spraying WD-40 to the bushings. The sound had gone away for maybe a week, then all of the sudden the rubber started to break down MUCH quicker since the WD-40 softened up the rubber.

My new bushings have been great now for over 5 years. This was on my Civic though, but shouldn't be much different.

propwdialogue

www.hondaautomotiveparts.com has both upper and lower boots available.

onlyvtec

I will have to check that out. Thank you for the info.

kccord

Holy ****, this is the same problem to what I'm having right now:

Info: 96Accord ex, 96000kms, car is lowered with ebay springs with stock struts (shockies) about 6 months ago.

Symptoms: Creaking noise coming front left side of the car. Noise is highly definable as it got louder and louder in the past few months. Only occurs slightly when accelerating or braking during reverse and more drastic under forward braking and over bumps.

I suspected that I was chassis flex near the left A-pillar/hood area as I dont have any strut braces. Just then, I got my mum to play around with the car so I can hear it -> sound definitely from top front left/upper spring area. Could this be also the upper ball joint?? the shocks/springs does not make a noise when I push the front left up and down when the car is stationary.

2moro I'm going to do a run over check the noise; Window cowl, hood hinges, a-pillar, upper and lower ball joint boot/assembly (tighten bolts and check for splits/leaks) and finally springs (because they run on sleeves). What other things should I check other than these that may cause the horrible noise? it is highly irritating

kccord

Here's a video of it, it maybe be the same problem as yours:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM6LsVsSAbY

BTW, DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS THE CLUNKING NOISE AT THE END OF THE VIDEO??

UPDATE: Steering ball joint boot has split, god knows how long it has been but there are no play at all on both upper and lower ball. Filled it in with silicon lube spray but didn't make a difference and still make the creaking noise! called Honda, they wanted $30AUD for the boot EACH or $420AUD for upper ball joint/control arm assembly replacement so I told them to shove it where the sun don't shine.

I took my suspension on that wheel off on the afternoon, cleaned it up, spray wd40 all over, cleaned the sleeves, rotate the springs and fix the rubber base and voallah!! Noise is gone. (Happy)

sde780

Subscribed, I will be trying the syringe method to grease my lower balljoint tomorrow.

Everytime I turn my steering wheel it creaks super loud, I've pretty much narrowed it down to the lower balljoint. Old thread I know, but better search than mindlessly create new threads right?

HonBeer

LOL. I have nothing to say. But you need to educate yourself about cars! Made me laugh though.

Jensen_Nick

Hey, I know this is kinda off topic a bit. I as well have a squeak coming from my front driver side of my car. My car is a '97 Honda Accord LX non V-tec, I just hit 173k miles. I have already narrowed it down by pushing on all corners of my car. I'm not sure what it is, hopefully you guys can help. I have had some work recently done to my car. This work includes new CV axles. My drivers side axle had to be replaced twice because I snapped it after it was done the first time, when we got snow. The other work was a new tie rod on my drivers side, which I found out was loose when I went in for a 4 wheel alignment. Any help would be great. If you need any other info just let me know.

Josh Heck

Definitely grease the ball joints i just had the same loud god awful creaking greased them up and completely gone

berichsbestie

From the image above I have a question regarding my daughters 1995 accord ex. looking at the upper arm i believe it is the bolt is halfway out and the nut is missing. I know its metric. Can anyone tell me what size the nut would be for number 16 in the image?