My recently purchased 2000 BASE Dakota has a very annoying "creaking" or "cracking" noise that occurs with each moderate bump in the road and it's driving me nuts. The actual noise sounds like 2 pieces of hard metal or hard plastic that are crammed hard against each other and "move" a bit with each bump. For whatever reason it seems to be most pronounced when it's hot outside. The noise appears to come from the front driver's side roof post area, or maybe where the dashboard meets the truck body on the driver's side, or even maybe where the front leading edge of the driver's door meets the body.

In any case, it's a body noise of some kind. The truck has never been wrecked, so the overall integrity of the body should be good. Does anyone have any ideas where I might look for the possible problem?????

 

check your ball joints, control arm bushings, and sway arm link bushings...

 

My 99 was doing the same thing and it turned out to be the upper ball joints. A quick way to see if that is your problem is to stand in front of your truck and look at the front wheels. If they are chamfered out then that may be it.

 

yep, i had the same problem. ball joints squeek alot when they are worn out. just push on the quarter panel above your front driver side wheel.