RavynX

Hey all,

TLDR here:
You may see 3/4 and think, wait 2/4 or 3/5? My wife ordered the 3/5 MaxTrac kit for our '12 FX2 Ecoboost and we installed it last year. It had quite the stinkbug stance so after working with MaxTrac service they sent us the rear part of the 2/4 kit to install while keeping the front of the 3/4 making it a 3/4 kit. Something about the 3.5L ecoboost not weighing as much as the V8 so the front didn't drop as much? Who knows...

Getting to the point:
We got a level stance out of it and it's been awesome for the past year but since earlier this Spring the creaks started to develop in the rear. We're now in October and anytime we accelerate from a stop or go over broken pavement or rocks the squeaking is non-stop until at cruising speeds. The sound is also exacerbated when towing. I can get it to squeak on the highway when laying my foot into the pedal to get the rear to squat.

I've cleaned and greased the white leaf insulators as best as I could since I couldn't take them out completely. The rubber leaf bushings look like typical compressed rubber how they begin to crack though I'm not sure if that's the source of the sound. Is there anything else I should check before ordering polyurethane leaf spring and shackle bushings?

Our truck just ticked over 70k miles and we bought it new in 2012.

Summers22

iTrader: (2)

I would use white lithium grease spray on every bushing, crack, gap you can. I had a front sway bar bushing squeak like mad and 2 years after spraying it with the white lithium grease, it never squeaked again. They just got replaced, but my point is that grease is awesome stuff.

RavynX

I forgot to mention we already tried that. In the 2nd photo you can see some of the white splotches. I doubt it sunk in past the rubber bushings on the inside though.

If the leafs are fighting the rubber bushings at their new location (axle flip) then going polyurethane would be our best bet. I've done Energy Suspension on my S2000 and the wife's Miata and it's been wonderful. I just need to know for sure before I bite that bullet wrestling with the leaf springs off of the truck again. :P

Summers22

iTrader: (2)

May have to take each bolt out 1 by 1 and spray the inside sleeve of the bushings. These squeaks can be pesky. From your symptoms of the squeaking on acceleration, most likely the rear bushings are causing the noise.

1lowranger

This is a problem almost every time one of these trucks gets dropped. Doesn't seem to matter which kit people are running. It has been brought up many times and it seems that there are 2 things people claim is there issue. The first is the circle rubber pad thing on the ends of the leafs that's only exposed as the leafs have no weight on them. There was a thread about a guy jacking up his truck and using a screwdriver to wedge the legs apart enough to clean up the rust that had formed and regreased. The other thing people claim is its there tow bag mounts but you didn't mention having those. My truck does it also. It's done it for about 3 years. I did several things at once so I can't say for sure which worked. All I can say is it got better but never perfect. My tailgate step makes so much noise that it almost drowns out the squeak. If not I crank up my Focal system and all is good again.

1lowranger

I also used prothane grease on all my bushings. It was done at the same time as cleaning the spring pads and re-tightening everything for the 2nd or 3rd time.

RavynX

I tried cleaning and greasing the white insulator pads as shown in the first post. We don't have air-helper springs yet though that is in the cards to install since the truck squats more than we want when the trailer is loaded. I'm planning on getting the Airlift Slamair kit when the time comes. Currently it's just the axle-flip setup with the Maxtrac front leaf hanger.

I'll get a video of the sound after work today for a better visual/audio cue.

For your tailgate step, we had the same issue about 40k miles ago and the dealer replaced the tailgate step which didn't fix the issue. They ended up greasing the pins that the tailgate latches to and that fixed that squeak. Just an FYI if you haven't tried that yet.

On a side note to your Focal system, I'm working on upgrading the speakers as well since the driver rear went out on me.

1lowranger

I stopped some of the squeaks on the tailgate but now it's more of a rattle like its internal. The focal system sounds so clean. I've had several components thru years and these are my favorite to this point. There way to expensive for my taste normally but I got them on a killer Black Friday sale a few years back. After having them now I'll probably spring for them when the time comes again.

RavynX

Sorry for the long wait. This past Monday I disassembled the rear leafs, cleaned, lubed with Energy Suspension's grease, and reassembled. It's a bit quieter but still squeaking on the driver side mainly. It looks to be the front Maxtrac shackle is pivoting when it really shouldn't. I'll be removing the front leaf again to check that small bolt on the shackle this weekend.