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Rear leaf spring clunk

chris-i

By chris-i
in Troubleshooting & Recalls

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bhales Enthusiast

bhales

Posted
Posted

im going to do this as soon as it cools off some, i was hoping the dealership would get them changed out if i complained enough. im taking my truck back to the dealership every oil change to complain about the leaf springs and this horrible 8psd transmission. other than those two hunks of chit i like my truck. i wish i would have ordered a 6.2 and 10 spd but ill run this one until its almost out of warranty and trade it in. maybe by then they will figure something out. I loved my 2008 Seirra Denali 270,000 trouble free miles, so im not ready to give up on GM yet because the other trucks are fugly compared to the GM trucks...yet

rkj__ Enthusiast

rkj__

Posted
Posted (edited)

Good info.

Edited by rkj__
Eddie 70 Senior Enthusiast

Eddie 70

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, truckguy82 said:

How did you install? Did you take apart the springs to install that or simply jack up the truck and shove it in there?

What I did was place a floor jack on the frame just in front of the rear wheel and jack the truck up. This will spread the leaves out.  Taking the wheel off will make it easy to slide your rubber pieces in between the leaves. I slid each piece of inner tube as far forward as I could. Folded the excess over and used a tie wrap to hold it in place. I bought the biggest inner tube they sell at walmart. Cut the valve out. Held the ends of the tube up in one hand and cut it in half. Then cut each half in two again so I wound up with 4 approximately equal parts.

  • 4 years later...
AG Enthusiast

AG

Posted
Posted

Bought a 1/8 inch recycled rubber sheet from Amazon for less than $3 and cut into strips as wide as the leaf springs. Slid into the gap and pried open the leaf to get the rubber strip closest to  connection to the other leaf.  Zip tied the strip to the spring and it was like a light switch.  No noise. No clunk.

  • Like 1
  • 1 month later...
AG Enthusiast

AG

Posted
Posted

and now its back.  I have heard others say u bolts and anchors?  The noise is always on angled or reverse in a turn.

  • 5 months later...
Campman73 New Member

Campman73

Posted
Posted

I have a 2016 2500. I had this same noise on articulation of the rear leaf springs, when i go into a parking lot or even backing out of my driveway. I had been fighting with my local dealer about this noise since 10k miles on it. i gave them the truck for 3 days so the manager could drive it around to hear the noise. Of course it rained all those days and the noise was nonexistent when they got wet. i happened to be driving bye the dealer on a dry day and it started making the noise. I immediately stopped in and took them for a drive. We never made it out of the parking lot. He had me pull it into the shop right onto the rack. They lifted it up to look under it. They next called the heaviest guy in the shop over to hang on the bumper and bounce. They found the noise.

They did some research and found a bulletin that told them to have the truck on a level rack and loosen every suspension part front and back and retorque everything by stock specs. The service manager said to do it but also order a whole new rear leaf spring kit (springs, shackles, and bolts). Those got replaced of course right after my warranty was up. Luckily i was chasing this noise way before it expired and had it documented so they were no charge.

So we move on almost 10k miles later and guess what.........the noise is back. I found out that the noise comes from the cheap square plastic isolator blocks that are in between the two upper leaves. The dealer sells them for over $200 not installed.

I did my own research and found a guy that sells a kit for $200? i believe. It is some 1/4 inch rubber with a hole drilled in it and a zip tie. I just happen to have a 1/4 inch thick horse stall padding in the bed of my truck for protection. I got an 8 foot piece from tractor supply for $7. I have a 6.5 foot bed. All i did was take the extra and cut strips the width of the spring. I lifted the truck up by the frame so the axle hung down separating the leaves, of course the tire and wheel were off. Took a pry bar and spread them a little more and put the padding from back part of the leaf where it curls over to down between the leaf coupling bracket. Did it on both the front and back of each side in the rear. Haven't heard a peep since and its been 30k miles since.

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