I'm not sure how new this noise is, but now when I go over rough roads, I can hear a slight creak/rattle coming from somewhere in the front half of the truck. I can't really hear it with the windows up but it's loud and clear with them down. I thought it might be the heat shields on the engine, but I don't see how they could make a creaking noise... rattle, yes, but not a creak.

I did just take off the rusty old mounts for the side steps a week ago or so. I'm not sure if this started then or if it's been going on longer (it just recently got warm enough to drive with the windows down). On the off chance I didn't get the bolts on the cab mounts tight enough, I tightened the holy hell out of them and the creak didn't get any quieter.

On a side note, I did just replace the shocks in January. One of the front ones had something goofy going on with one of the rubber dampers, where some of the rubber was missing. Related? I tried tightening the lower bolts on the fronts but couldn't get them any tighter.

Creaks annoy me.

Any thoughts?

 

I suspect the control arm bushings are squeaking ... not sure of the cure save replacement.

 

I know for a fact my bushings are squeaking. They're chapped to hell. My leaf springs use to squeak but I sprayed it down with PB Blaster and no more squeak.

 

a common squeak point is the auto transmission linkage, under the drivers feet, where the up/down rod connects to the back/forth rod. there's a cross bar with plastic bushings on the end. either replace the bushings, or just do like i did and put wheel bearing grease on them about every 12 months.

sounds like this...
squeek - squeek - squeek - squeek - squeek -

 

Yeah, the control arm bushings look terrible. They're cracked to fu(k. I'll try hosing them down with PB Blaster. I'll also check out the linkage for the tranny as long as I'm stuffing myself under the truck.

Both good ideas.

How tight should those cab mount bolts be torqued?

 

I'll have to check my control arm bushings too. Have a similar sound I've never really tracked down.

 

I hosed down the control arm bushings with PB Blaster, hosed down the lower shock mounting bolt, and the front/back attachment for the rear springs, and it still creaks. Next, I smoked down the body mounting bolts even more with a 24" breaker bar, and it still creaks. I think this'll be one of those things that will elude me for a while. I'm going to check the shift linkage tomorrow since it's dark ATM.

I suppose it could be exhaust hangers creaking. That's also something to check tomorrow.

 

Might be completely unrelated, but my truck gets a squeek/creak to it when it gets wet, right around the gas tank straps. a quick spray of PB or something like that between the cab and bed seems to solve it for a while!

 

I just got done greasing the outer tie rod ends and balljoints. I'll need to get a flexible hose for my grease gun as I can't get to the inner tie rod ends and the ball joint on the track bar.

Things I noticed:
1. The driver's side outer tie rod had some water forced out when I pumped the grease in. It doesn't seem to have any play in it that I could tell by pulling on the tie rod, but that can't be good.
2. The passenger's side upper balljoint *might* have had a microscopic amount of play in it. It's hard to tell when you're jerking mightily on your balljoint (hehe) but I might have seen a little bit.

So that's where it stands. I'll go grab a new hose for the grease gun and hit the other three joints and see what happens.

 

So, tonight, I was putting Back to Black on the bumpers and the black trim on the tailgate, and noticed that the tailgate creaked when you jostled it. Lovely. All that crap and it's just the damn tailgate. I shot the hinges with PB Blaster and it shut up for now. I tried getting some grease in there first, but no love.

I also put Back to Black on the Access cover. It's all swirly now, so that's awesome. At least I figured out the creak.