So last week I decided to put some white lithium grease on my leaf springs; thinking it would be good for them. For one day they didn't make a noise, but the next day they sounded like death. I got underneath the truck and diagnosed that the sound was coming from the very front of the spring, where it connects to the truck body. This noise is only coming from the drivers side spring. It's a very loud creaking and squeaking. I've put more grease directly where the sound is and I've had no luck.


Now to my other problem. I have stated to notice a rattling sound whenever I hit bumps coming from the front end on the driver side. I crawled under my truck and checked for anything loose but everything seems rock solid. I did notice however I have a cracked strut dust cover and the rubber boot around my upper ball joint has a small tear in it. I drive a 2009 f150 lariat 4x4 78,000 miles. Also I run some pretty big tires 305/55/20, and I have a 2in leveling kit in the front.


Thank you so much for any info y'all give me. Everything is much appreciated.

 

jack up your front end till the tire comes off the ground and see if the upper control arm is contacting the coils... I thought it was pretty much only a problem with levels over 2.5" but it could be that... or the sway bar links.

for the bushing in the leafs; i think it would be best to replace it but you could shoot some pb blaster on it, not for the lubricating properties but pb blaster swells rubber bushings. likely not a good long term solution but something to try.

 

These are pics I took of the driver side front end when I had the tire off the other day.

 

on your second pick down the swaybar end link pivot area (not sure what it's specifically called) looks like the rubber boot is destroyed and it's open to the elements. that's my guess. I don't see any marks on your coils that would suggest contact... I guess it still could be ball joints or tie rod ends?

edit: did you wipe that dust off the dust cover on the strut where it's cracked? if not it's obviously contacting something... even if you did wipe it off it could be making noise.

 

Thanks for all the info man, unfortunately I don't remember if I wiped that off. I most likely not but who knows. I'll check on that today. That sway bar you were talking about, is there anything I could do other than replace it? For now I am just gonna replace that dust cover and see if that's the problem. Thanks again.

 

it's pretty common for those to go and pretty easy to change... i think they are only $50 each. I don't know of anything you could do about it other than replace it, but i would just replace it.

 

Rockauto, $24.79 each:

 

MOOG generally makes pretty good stuff but i don't see the rubber dust covers?? (unless they are a bit different from oem)

 

Awesome guys. I can't thank y'all enough.

 

So I crawled under my truck today to Install my swag bar linkage. The old unit looked fine and didn't move so I decided to keep it. Looking for anything else while I had my truck up I started hitting metal to see if something had gotten in there. And then... I heard the noise. Feeling like a dumbass I hit the lower control arm thing and heard something rattle. An hour of fishing around in there and finally I pulled out a big *** rock. Could have sworn I checked for rocks everywhere. I am super happy my truck is fine, yet pissed because it was that simple and in front of me the whole time. Thanks for all the help.