Hello. First things first, a little bit about my truck. It's a 2004 Dodge RAM 1500 2 wheel drive, 5.7 hemi magnum with 183,000 miles. It has a 7 inch suspension lift that was put on about 2 1/2 years ago and 18" pro comp wheels with 35" terra grappler tires. I bought this truck end of November 2009 from a private owner and haven't had any problems with it such as brakes, engine, transmission, etc. The guy who owned it before me had just put new brakes on before he sold it and other then that he never had any problems either. He took excellent care of it so its been in great shape. I bought it with about 165,000 miles on it but they were all highway miles as he used it for his job which required a lot of highway driving. It doesn't have a tow package and has never towed anything.

Now, I'm having multiple problems and have not been able to figure out what's going on! First problem is that whenever I go over bumps, especially large ones, there is a really loud banging sound in the front end. Have had this problem for probably eight months or so. Whenever I'm going up on a bump it's fine but as soon as I come down, thats when it bangs. We have had people tell us it's the shocks and they need to be replaced but I took it to a shop that works specially on lifted trucks and the guy checked out the shocks and said they're still good. This time last year I was having problems with the steering/driving, such as it would pull very badly and the steering wheel would shake so we took it to a different shop then the one I mentioned before, and my U-joints were bad. They replaced those and since then I haven't had any problems like before that would hint something about the U-joints being out again. If anyone has any ideas what could be causing this banging sound, that would be so amazing and helpful! It drives me insane and it seems to be getting worse and is simply unbearable.

Second problem, my truck creaks really badly. I know because it's an older truck it's not going to be perfect and it's going to have some creaking sounds but it's getting really bad! It happens when I'm slowing down to a stop and when I'm speeding up from a stop. Also, it has now increased that even while I'm driving (doesn't matter what speed) you can hear it creaking too. I noticed the other night when I was in park that when I turn my steering wheel it makes a very loud creaking noise, worse then the noise the body makes when I'm driving. I don't know if this is something that can be solved simply by having everything lubicrated but if anyone has any suggestions on that also, that would be so helpful!

I'm a girl so I don't know a ton about trucks and especially lifted trucks but I do like learning about it and I would like to have some idea what's going on with my truck before I just take it to a shop. for some reason no one really seems to know whats going on so your help is very much appreciated!

 

Welcome to the site. So you got an 04 2wd with a 7" lift. Is it all susp lift or susp+body lift?
Do you know who the manufacture of the lift is?

When going over bumps and getting that bang you could be pulling the shock too far apart or maybe making the coil spring bucket hit the bottom of the upper control arm.

As far as pulling to one side and u-joints being bad, you have a 2wd and there are no u-joints. Maybe you meant ball joints as that would cause it to pull if they are bad and are on a 2wd.

Bad CJs will pop when stopping or turning and I guess they could also when going over things but I would still check those shocks and clearance between the coil bucket and UCA.

Since at the bottom you said you are a girl i will take it easy on you because if you were a man and coming in here with these things I would tell you to get your *** out there and look. LOL

But as for the creaking and squeaking, have someone lift the front end of the truck up and put it on jack stands so you (or someone) can be under the truck while someone turns the wheel back and forth so the location of the noise can be identified. There are no serviceable or lubrication parts on the front end but you can spray it with some WD40 to quite it down for now. Eventually it will dry out and make noise again and at that point you can spray it again or replace parts.

 

The creaks could be the power steering pump. Does it creek when you are parked with it on and turn the wheel?

Look on your shock bucket and see if it looks lime there has been metal to metal contact, like shiny metal.

I have this too but it's from the leveling kit. It is only on my drivers side (kinda weird)

 

I don't see where you specified it was a 4x2 or 4x4.

But a slam on the way down from a bump is an indicator that the shock is either bad or is actually too long for the application, the trucks suspension is actually flexing downward beyond where the shock can compress. I've run into this when I lifted my Grand Cherokee. I was able to buy rear shocks for the 2" of lift I added but they were out of shocks that were 2" longer for the front, so my choices were stock height or 4" longer. I went with the longer and they would BANG so hard coming down that I thought I might actually crack the windshield! I ended up ordering the proper length shocks for the front at 2" over stock and the problem went bye-bye. Could very well be that the place you took it tested the shock for proper operation, but not for proper fitment. The shock may fit perfectly when the truck is sitting still and it'd be tough to tell if it is too long or short, but lift the truck or compress it and the shock will cause problems.


As for the creaking, could be ANYTHING, but we can narrow it down if you are more specific as to whether the truck is a 4x2 or 4x4 and what type of lift(s) you have.

Could be anything from a balky power steering pump as Matt suggested to metal on metal in a shock tower (if it's a coil over 4x2) to bushing wear (again causing metal on metal) or about one or a combination of a half dozen other components I can think of off-hand.

LOT of VERY knowledgeable people around here, but we just need a little more info to go on...