Front driver side suspension issues

What kind of help are you looking for?

Control arm bushings are twisting when you bounce the car up and down, but they would have to be really badly deteriorated to cause a squeak. A better suspect, given your multiple observations, would be the lower ball joint. The ball rocks back and forth as the body moves up and down, and it rotates when the steering is turned. It can squeak rather loudly if it is worn / tight. That lower ball joint comes as part of the lower control arm assembly.

To verify this, reach behind the wheel and touch your fingers on the bottom of the ball joint, then feel for the binding or snapping while a helper turns the steering wheel. You can also listen with a stethoscope on the joint.

There's two version of this model; a sedan and the convertible. These instructions should be appropriate for your car. Reverse the order when installing the new part. One word of warning. The front bushing has a pivot bolt going through it. That bolt must not be tightened while the car is supported on jack stands with the suspension hanging down. If it is, when the car is lowered, that bushing will be clamped in a permanent twist that will shorten its life. The car needs to be resting on the tires at normal ride height, and bounced a few ties to settle it, then that bolt can be tightened.

All they're saying is you're going to find that bolt will slide in but you won't be able to turn it because of those serrations, or teeth, under the head. You turn the nut instead, and that will pull the bolt in. The same thing happens when you take that bolt out. The nut spins right off, then you tap the bolt straight out without turning it.

Struts don't make squeaking noises because the shaft coming out doesn't rotate in relation to its body. What can happen if a worn strut is ignored for a real long time is the bushing at the top of the body will wear larger or oval-shaped, then the shaft can slap back and forth as you drive over bumpy roads. On your model the strut is not a structural part of the suspension system, so other than the thumping noise, it doesn't affect the alignment.

The entire strut assembly with the coil spring does rotate on most other front-wheel-drive car models, and since it's holding up that corner of the car, the top mounting plate has ball bearings in it to make steering easier. Those bearings can break apart or become impacted with dirt. If they bind bad enough, you'll hear a snapping noise as you turn the steering wheel, but that goes away when you're moving. Your model uses a different design without the need for that rotating upper mount. The only things that rotate when turning the steering wheel are the upper and lower ball joints. All the upper one does is hold the spindle, and therefore the wheel and tire in alignment. There's no other forces on it. The lower ball joint is the "load-carrying" ball joint. That means the car's weight is transferred through the coil spring to the lower control arm, the lower ball joint, spindle, wheel bearing, then to the wheel and finally the tire. That lower ball joint has to rotate with all that weight on it so it is always the first one to wear out. About ten percent of the time you'll hear a noticeable clunk from the joint. About ten percent of the time you'll hear a squeak from it when turning the steering wheel or as it pivots as you drive over bumps. For the other 80 percent of failures due to normal wear, that only shows up during a visual inspection of the steering and suspension systems. There may have been no other symptoms up to that point.

Remember, without seeing it myself, I'm guessing at the lower ball joint based on the symptoms. Very often there's more worn parts that competent do-it-yourselfers overlook or don't know how to check for. Most of the time the car needs to be supported on jack stands or a hoist in multiple ways to perform a proper inspection. Some parts are checked while the car's weight is supported by the frame so the suspension parts can hang freely with no pressure on them. A different part of the inspection involves moving the jack stands to under the lower control arms so the suspension system is not hanging at the end of its travel.

A standard tool is a very long pry bar used to move parts around to look for objectionable free play The tightness I suspect is in your lower ball joint would show up as a good joint with no sideways or front-to-rear movement between the ball and its socket, so here again, we'd have to go by the sound to place blame on the part.

For anyone without plenty of experience, the best place to start is by having the vehicle inspected at a tire and alignment shop. The people there are experts at finding the causes of noises, vibrations, pulling to one side, and bad tire wear patterns. Many shops do this at no charge, and almost all do it for free if you have them do the repairs. Be aware that about half of the suspension parts affect the alignment and if one or more of them are replaced, an alignment will be required. If someone was to request to have just one or two of the worst parts replaced, while leaving a few worn parts alone, we know the alignment can't remain correct, so we won't do any of the job. Once we do any repairs, we take on the liability for all of the car as far as safety is concerned. To only replace some of the bad parts, we leave ourselves open to a lawsuit if a part we knew was defective, but didn't replace, leads to loss of control and a crash.

If you replace the lower control arm yourself, the rest of the system will still be inspected by the alignment specialist. That is always a part of any alignment as it assures us the wheels will be held in alignment when we're done.

Let me know what they find. I can post replacement instructions and offer advice and possible shortcuts to make the job easier. The car must be supported solidly on jack stands. Some parts require a lot of muscle to get them loose. We never want to rely on just a jack to prevent the car from falling on us.

What you need is the vehicle sitting at normal ride height. Being an alignment specialist at the dealership, I had a drive-on hoist, so the job was easy. At home I have to do this on the garage floor. If my nose is gong to get caught on something, I drive the vehicle onto two small stacks of lumber.

I should point out the difference between vehicle height and suspension ride height. Driving onto piles of lumber or onto ramps raises the body higher off the ground, making it harder to jump into it, but suspension height has to do with the geometric relationship of the angles the parts form. That doesn't change much other than from a little weight transfer to the rear wheels. As long as nothing is artificially holding the body up off the ground, and the normal amount of weight is on each wheel, you can tighten the pivot bolts. That applies to all rubber bushings in front and rear control arms, and on some models it also applies to other bushings that rotate as the body moves up and down. That can include rear leaf springs and their rear shackles, and even some shock absorber designs.

It's the angle of the control arm that is important. How you get it there isn't important, but for professionals, besides the life expectancy that concerns you, we also have to think about potential lawsuits and liability issues. As such, we would only use methods we could justify in a courtroom without a shady lawyer twisting it into something we never intended to do.

What I really don't want you to do is let the suspension hang down freely while the car is jacked up, and tighten the bolt at that time. Lots of do-it-yourselfers don't realize the twist that puts on the bushings when the car is set down on the ground, then they blame the parts manufacturer when the bushings fail in a year or two.

I'd avoid jacking on the rotor as that could crack it. Go under the ball joint instead. Also, remember the control arm is a lever. The closer you put the jack to the pivot bushing, the less effect the weight of the car will have, so it won't push the control arm up as far as normal. The weight would need to be supported out where the wheel bolts on to get the same leverage and angle. If you have to jack under the control arm, consider having a helper lean on the fender to push the body down a little more. Also be sure to have a stack of blocks of wood or something else under there in case the car falls down while you're under it. I preached that over and over in the classroom, then the retired instructor who I replaced had his motorhome fall on him. No jack stand, and over $40,000.00 in medical bills to fix his leg as well as possible. He still limps to this day. Didn't use a jack stand

The control arm needs to be close to its at-rest position. How you get it there doesn't matter.

Please keep me updated on your progress.