my car is a 90 crx si with 250,000 miles on the chassis,

recently it makes a squeaky noise as i am turning the steering wheel towards the left, usually when going slower speeds, such as manoevering around a parking lot and stuff like that, it sounds like its coming from somewhere around the shock/spring assembly & upper control arm area in the wheel well, above the tire,

my friend who is a mechanic was looking at it as i turned the wheel and i did too, and it all looks good ?, and i tried to spray some silicone lube around the area but did'nt get rid of the noise?,

what do you think could cause a squeaky noise like that when turning the wheel to the left ???, bushings ?, damaged spring ? etc . . .

the shocks and springs were installed in 2003, they are kyb-gr2 and H&R softsport OE springs (.75" drop), so they have been used 11 years and probably time to replace with new ones.

suspension shop did work couple years ago, replaced all the bad stuff needing replacement, such as control arms, balljoints, etc . .., but never replaced the upper control arms or upper balljoints, at the time they said they were still ok,

not sure if the new lower control arms they put on came with new bushings or if they just used my old ones ? i also never put new sway bar bushings for the front ?

also i saw another guy who made a post about squeaking noise while turning, and turned out his was solved after replacing the bushing that is between the top of the shock and the body, and another guy solved his noise by replacing his control arm bushings,

your opinions would be appreciated, thanks

 

Sounds like upper A arms\ball joint to me. How does the boot look on it. They go dry pretty quick once the boot gives way.

 

it did'nt look torn really, but i should give it a second look, cause it was dark when i looked at it, plus the wheel was on and in the way of being able to see stuff up in that area, probably be better if i took the drivers wheel off so i could look at all the suspension stuff better.

another thing, i guess its not constant, cause today before i left, i turned the wheel towards the left while the car was parked, and this time it did'nt make any noise ???,

seems like it does sometimes and then does'nt for a while, . . . . . ., then comes back ?

 

its a balljoint that needs replacing.

figure out which one needs replacing by actually moving the suspension, and troubleshooting. not just by looking at it.

 

I had this exact problem for YEARS (at least 5 years) and it drove me crazy. It would only do it at slow speeds aka basically only ever noticed when driving slow parking or straightening up to park etc. Mine got so loud it was embarrassing. Mine was more like a squeaky groan if that makes sense, very difficult to describe. Trying to diagnose the problem on a lift or even jackstands or sitting in the driveway inspecting it you couldn't replicate the noise in any situation other than rolling and turning slightly at the same time.

No matter how many times I had my suspension apart and checked and re-checked everything I could never figure it out. Couldn't find anything loose replacing the ball joint, tie rod end, new strut, even replaced the steering rack after those didn't fix it as I assumed it must have been something internal in the rack making the noise.

It turns out the issue was simply the two bushings in the strut mount. I replaced those earlier this year just for the heck of it with some new struts I put in and it instantly went away. The weird thing was the old bushings weren't worn AT ALL and I almost didn't replace them because they still looked brand new so I didn't see any point.

 

btw OP, you sure its not just coming from the steering wheel itself?

its typical the horn grounding ring becomes dry and scratchy.

 

i did'nt think it was anything big, cause the squeeky noise went away for a while, and thought the balljoints were fine just from going by the visual inspection of them, but you guys were right when you said it was a balljoint going bad, cause just lastnight i was pulling out of my parking spot in front of CVS pharmacy, and heard a big sound, and felt like i was dragging something stuck under my car, and looked and there was'nt anything under my car, and then noticed my drivers side wheel was right up against the edge of the fender, as if it were a totally slammed car, and if i tried to move the car it made a rough sound and i knew was'nt good to try moving it anymore, and was sure it was also probably a balljoint like people said, cause the wheel was tilted outward, where the bottom was outward more than the top part, and you can move the wheel around like it was all loose and wobbley, and i think it busted the CV joint too, as the wheel went up into the wheel well after the balljoint broke, cause after the tow guy moved the car away, i saw 2 of the CV bearings sitting on the ground.

so i had to get the car towed, and took all night before i finally got it towed, the first towtruck said it might damage it since he had a flatbed truck, then said another guy would come but never heard from him, then i realised i had to go to where my car was and stay near it, cause CVS has a tow comany tow cars that are left in their lot, so had to make sure they did'nt tow it while i waited for my towtruck, so i called and nobody had a wheel dolly type truck, and just got another flatbed from different tow service, but this guy said it won't damage anything, and that the first guy i got just did'nt know what he was doing or just did'nt want to work, so he got it up on his truck and i had him tow it directly to a shop that does suspension and alignment work, cause i was about to have some other work done soon from them anyway and i just did'nt want to mess with it in front of my place by the curb on the street, plus i did'nt know if it damaged anything else in the process of the balljoint breaking ? and the shop can check everything out on whole suspension and make sure its all safe to drive and stuff.

i heard if the upper balljoint needs replacing, that you have to get the whole upper control arm with a balljoint ? that you can't just buy only the balljoint ? that true ?

the main good thing is that the balljoint broke as i was just about to back out of a parking spot, and not going at highway speed, which could of been real bad, cause earlier that same day i was driving on the highway going 95mph, and thank god it did'nt happen then !!!, i was stupid for not checking out the condition of the balljoints on that side in detail, cause after hearing sounds on that side, i should of did more to try and find out about what it could be, and could of prevented this from happening, and maybe save the CV joint too?

so i'll give the shop my car was dropped at a call in a little, and tell them to look it over and see what happened ?, this is the first time i've had a balljoint break on me, i've replaced them before it happened on the other ones, and really thats the only side i did'nt replace one on before, so i am not familiar with what stuff can get damaged in the process of balljioints breaking on the front ?, i know the CV joint, but what else can also get messed up when they break?, i would think the LCA should be fine since the car was'nt moving when it happened, and knuckle also seems like its sturdy enough that would'nt be affected if just in parking lot, but i wonder if anything like tie rod or other stuff might of been messed up too ? i guess i'll find out. . . .

 

When mine did the same thing it took the cv axle and linkage between the sway bar and lower control arm got broke. I was going about 35 when mine broke.

 

hopefully it did'nt break my lower control arm since i just barely started backing up from my parking spot as it happened?, but not sure, i had it towed to a shop, and i was just about to call them to tell them its my car and for them to look it over to see what was damaged, then i'll know for sure, usually i'm one to not take my car to shops to have stuff done, and do stuff myself, except for tire stuff like discount tire or muffler / exhaust work, and in this case suspension work, and i've used this shop before and they are pretty honest and have good cheap prices and don't bullshit trying to make stuff up, so i feel good using them. last time he even did the rack end bushing and a balljoint free of charge, cause i told him to pass on those, but he did it anyway cause said needed to be done. which was cool

 

i got my car back from the suspension shop, they looked everything over good, replaced lower front driverside balljoint, and drivers side CV axle, and i had them put my new rear trailing arm bushings in while they were at it since i've been meaning to have them done for a while, and i picked car up, drives fine, its hard to really tell for sure, but i guess i feel an improvement over the bumps and harsh roads since the rear trailing arm bushings were replaced, but i thought it was going to be a way more obvious difference, cause everyone said it makes it so much better of a ride afterwards, but all i know is they needed to be replaced since they were the original 23 yr old ones, all tore up.

he gave me a list of other stuff thats needing replacing, he said the front lower control arms were bent, which i was surprised cause just got new ones 2 years ago, i might of hit something, but i will check to see how bent they are, cause if they are just slightly bent, i won't rush to replace them cause should'nt affect ride, they just are listing whats needed if i want to get car properly aligned and everything, which is'nt as important to me, my car drives straight when you let go of the steering wheel, and the tires are'nt wearing extremely fast or anything.

said i need 2 adjustable front strut or tork rods ?, i guess he means radius rods ? and bushings for them too, does that sound right ? that he means radius rods? not sure why adjustable? and said all my motor mounts were bad and need replacements, and that i'm missing the rack-end bushing on passenger side of steering rack, i put in a new steering rack in 2007, i thought it came with everything included already on it?, along with the rack-end bushing?, not sure why i'm missing it? if it fell off or what?

i'll look at the motor mounts to really see how bad they look, if they are really bad then i'll replace soon, but if they are'nt too bad and solid enough to hold the motor in place then i'll wait a while, and i'll order a rack-end bushing which is just $10, and do it myself, and look into how much adjustable radius rods with bushings are ? and get those too,

he did'nt say anything about the upper balljoints being bad or anything?, i think the pass. side one was replaced around 2007, but i don't remember ever replacing the driver side upper balljoint, and kind of feel worried about it?, and would almost feel better if i did replace it just for peace of mind, so i don't have it bust on me while on the road or anything!, i put my kyb gr-2 shocks and h&r oe springs in 2003, and been 11 years but i think i need to replace them cause its a lot worse of a ride i notice and plus it looks a lot lower at the fender gap, probably cause the springs sagging from being old and having been used , after doing all that stuff it should be a lot better of a ride on crappy roads, even know its not all too bad of a ride currently, but want to make it best i can plus make it safe to drive not worrying if something is going to happen.