Forgive me for reposting this from the Suspension forum, but I really need all the help I can get here.

Well I'm still having problems with my front suspension making creaking/clicking sounds when turning the steering wheel. First, a brief history of recent front end suspension work:

November 2005 - replaced outer tie rods with new OEM Honda units w/ new ball joints.

November 2006 - a friend's shop replaced lower ball joints and front wheel bearings (parts from their supplier, not OEM Honda but could be from somewhere that also supplies Honda).

February 2007 - replaced upper control arms with new arms purchased off eBay from a Canadian seller, came w/ ball joints and new bushings. These ball joints differ from OEM in that they have a c-clip holding them in, which the OEM ones do not.

So as you can see, all 6 ball joints on the front end of my car are less than 2 years old.

Okay so a few months ago, I started hearing a loud creaking or clicking sound coming from the front end when rocking the steering wheel back and forth. I thought it was the steering rack, so I replaced the rack with a rebuilt unit (from a quality rebuilder). A few days later the sound came back, but oh well, the steering rack was really old anyway w/ 250K miles on it.

So then I went back to my friend's shop, and he looked at it again, and it seemed the noise was coming from the upper ball joints. It's like they weren't pivoting smoothly when the wheel was turned. So I tried putting my old OEM UCA's back on. The next day, sound came back.

I noticed when putting the old UCA's back on, it looked like most of the grease had leaked out of the boots. Looking at the eBay UCA's, it appeared the grease had come out of those, as well, so I thought that could be the problem. I took the eBay UCA's back up to my friend's shop, and he noticed the ball joints were very stiff (normal when they're new, right?). He said I should grease them up with some silicone lube, and he gave me a little packet of Energy Suspension's prelube stuff, that really thick, really sticky white grease.

So I greased the ball and socket portions of the ball joints really well, and tried to work the joints around as much as possible to loosen them up a bit. I put the eBay arms back on the car yesterday, and it's STILL making the same creaking noise!!!

Note: the sound only starts after I've been driving awhile and it's hot outside. It doesn't make the sound when I first start driving in the morning.

I'm totally at a loss now of what to do. At this point, I'm not sure if I should drop $95/side on OEM Honda UCA's, as I'm not really sure if that would fix my problem or not. I hate to waste these eBay UCA's if there's really no problem with them.

Has anyone ever had a problem like this before or have any idea what could be going on? I'm almost at the point where I want to just drop off the car at the shop and tell them to figure out what's wrong with it, even though I've never done that in the past 6+ years and 160K+ miles that I've owned the car. But it only makes that sound when the car is on the ground, not if the wheels are jacked up in the air, so it needs to be on some kind of lift where the car is still sitting on the wheels and someone rocks the steering back and forth while someone pokes around from underneath.

ANY help at all would be much appreciated. I'd really like to fix this before I drive 500+ miles each way up to Chicago 6 weeks from now.

 

maybe something broke. Bracket? bolt? U sure its not related to the axles or wheel bearings?? Dont ask me why I ask. I'm just throwing out questions. lol. guess thats no help but... its a free bump for ya.

 

The noise only happens when I turn the steering wheel, and it's most noticeable when the car is not moving. Lately as it has gotten worse, though, I can hear it when I move the wheel while driving slowly.

I have ruled out the steering rack, too, because I can hear it when the weight shifts forward or backwards when starting or stopping, and the front end raises up or dives down. That pretty much leaves the ball joints as the only things that move both when turning the wheels and when the suspension moves up and down.

 

did you check all the bushings of the suspension? do those arms even have bushings... i dunno. what about the shock? bolt broken? like i said. just throwing out ideas.