squeaky shock?

lesZ71 · January 21, 2007

Last summer I had a problem with my driver's side front shock squeaking really bad. The noise seemed to be coming from the upper portion of the shock. I noticed that the noise would go away for a day or so whenever I would tighten the upper mounting bolt (it would barely turn..so it was not really loose). I even tried spraying some lube on it, but nothing worked. So I took it to the local dealer and they agreed the noise should not exist and replaced the upper shock insulator. Well this worked great for about a month and the noise started to slowly come back. Now the noise is back in full force so I took it back to the dealer and explained that this seemed to be the same problem as before. This time they only loosed the shock and retorqued the bolt. This lasted for about two days. The noise is really annoying/embarrising whenever getting in and out of the truck and going over bumps at low speeds. Whenever I try to bounce the front bumper it seems to stop within about 2 bounces on average.

I have a couple of questions: (1) Has anyone else dealt with a squeaky shock? (2) Or is it most likely the shock or some debris caught somewhere in the shock assembly or mounting hardware? (3) How long to the stock shocks normally last? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also, the truck is a 2004 EC Z71 with 23k miles (all stock with minimal offroading).

pm26 · January 21, 2007

The problem is obviously not the shock, but the shock bushings. Have you tried spraying silicone lube on them? I would also try silicone grease. Ace hardware sells it in a small container for about $3. It does not react with rubber the way petroleum grease does. But to be effective, you must take the bushings off.

lesZ71 · January 21, 2007

I have tried using the silicone spray lube on the bushings before taking it back to the dealer...but this did not seem to help very much. I have not tried using any silicone grease...definitely worth a shot though.

lesZ71 · February 15, 2007

I finally got a chance to investigate my squeaking shock issue a little further. I jacked the truck up and put it on a jackstand, removed the drivers side front wheel allowing better access to the shock. I removed the upper shock mounting bolt and bushing. Upon removing this I discovered that there was a small piece of metal that could be removed from it. I am assuming that this is what the dealer referred to as the upper shock insulator ...since it seemed to only be there to take up the slack from the shock bolt and the hole in the mounting point on the frame. Anyway I noticed that this piece seemed to have some sort of coating on it...except at the tip. I put it back in the top bushing, with the outer washer still attached to it, and pressed these two together and tried to wiggle it around. While doing this, I noticed a faint, metal on metal type of squeaking sound. It makes sense that this noise would be considerably louder with the weight of the truck on it. At this point I removed the isolator again and put a small bit of white lithium grease on the exposed tip and tried to make the sound again, but now it was no there. Feeling confident I have found the source of this annoying squeek, I put a good amount of the white lithium grease on the isolator and where it fits into the upper bushing. I put everything back together and have been driving all week with no squeaking so far. Hopefully this will last for a good long time.

1999 Tahoe 4x4 · February 15, 2007

I'm glad you got it fixed.

I had some unexplainable squeek coming form the rear leaf springs. The only lube that helped was tri-flow. In comparison WD-40 lasted usually only for a week.