Hi,
My Durango has started to make some odd squeaks from underneath so I started looking around. I've replaced almost every single part of the steering and front suspension within the last year. I noticed today that the rubber bumpers on the frame are touching the lower arms for the wheels. This is with no load in the car. Should these be touching? It seems to me they weren't always. Does this mean I simply need new shocks, or something else? Hopefully I'll be able to successfully attach a photo which shows this. Thanks for any advice!

 

Shocks are always recommend to be replace every 25k to 30k miles. How is you ride height? That maybe the cause of the bumpers touching.

 

Here is a fix for the squeaky front end https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...3-durango.html . Can't tell you for sure if it is supposed to be on the rubber stop but by what MasterTech said it shouldn't. You could put in new shocks or/and reset to the factory ride height by adjusting the torsion bars, heres directions on how to do that https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...ment-woes.html part way down the page in a pdf form you can download. Remember if you reset the ride height to have it aligned, what to tell the shop is in that thread too. Hope this helps and welcome

 

if you have squeeking try greasing any zerk fittings on the front end... like the ball joints and such...

 

if the parts are stock there arent any grease fittings on the front end

 

true. the parts on my rango must not have been stock then cause i had the greasable ball joints and such... that fixed my squeek... till bigger problems arose lol

 

The bump stops are not supposed to be touching the control arms like in that picture. You need to reset back to factory height and then your ride will feel a hell of a lot better.

Adukart provided some great information, but in this thread it tells you how to set the factory height as Adkart supplied. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...ment-woes.html

 

Wow my little rubber bumpers are dry rotted and torn up. I think only the passenger side is touching...:/ Ive noticed its not level.

 

Thank you for the responses. I am dealing with a couple of different issues here.
- I did replace the shocks, I needed something to do last night. It did not raise the bumper off the lower control arm. Felt a little nicer though. Mastertech said they should be replaced every 20k-30k miles ?! I know I have 100k+ on these ones. And I off-road. They needed it.

- Both Mastertech & hydrashocker mentioned ride height. OK, I have a confession. Over the Summer I replaced upper & lower control arms, ball joints, tie rod ends, steering gear & pitman arm, a bunch of stuff. In that process I had to remove the torsion bars. AFTER I removed the first one, I re-read the manual, which said to mark the adjustment bolt so it could be installed to the same point. It was too late. I know these were not on right. I adjusted the torsion bars to increase the ride height tonight, and viola the rubber bumper is not resting on the lower control arm. BTW, omigod that took some cranking. Mine was 23mm low, almost a full inch.

- After all that, some squeaking is gone, some remains. Having an assistant turn the wheel left and right I noticed the steering rod moves in a slightly jerky motion rather than smooth. Further inspection shows suspiciously cloudy steering fluid. I plan to grease the ball joints & Pitman arms as Srch4me suggested. I couldn't find the grease gun tonight (kids - anyone loan out a thing with a hose and handle?). I'm hoping, but not thinking that will fix the squeak. I think a drain & replace of the power steering fluid is in order. Even though I replaced all that, and the PS pump and cooler this Summer as well. I'm not wanting to replace the steering gear ever again in my lifetime.

My Durango will be turning over 200,000 miles in the next week or so. It does take some upkeep, as might be expected with a high-mileage car, and one which I like to take out into the boonies and be a little rough with, but all in all I am really happy with it.

Thanks everyone for your input - this is a great group!

 

the part on mine that after i greased it finally stopped squeeking was like right under where the frame is there is a rod or something and it had a joint that had a zerk and after greasin that it stopped... btw for that one you have to have a special grease fitting or get creative