Ever since I had a tire blow out on the highway almost 4 months ago, I have noticed there is a creaking noise that comes from underneath the car at times. Kind of sounds like a ship creaking or something. Tried to get the mechanic to listen to it,he drove the car around the block but all heard was the convertible top hooks rattling. But my girlfriend heard it the other night and she said that wasnt normal and I need to bet it checked out. could it just need to be “lubed” I figure those placed like jiffy lube must offer that service for some reason. The mechanic said no. I had a car that the axle broke while I was driving it down the street…thank God I was going really slow at the time. Anyway, do you have any idea what could be making that noise? its a 2003 mitsubishi spyder eclipse convertible with 80,000 miles on it. thanks you so much. I am always worrying over this dang noise.
Bushings don’t need to be lubed anymore for most cars, yours included, so that’s out. You might have bad struts up front, which would bottom out on bumps to make a loud thunk! sound. There might be some creaking sound associated with that during average winter driving.
You need to tell us WHEN the vehicle makes this noise…what is it associated with? It has to occur in conjunction with something… WHen you turn the wheel? When you stop? When you accelerate? When you smile? Need the infoooo
When I am driving…mostly slowly only,sometimes when I step on the brake and slowdown and sometimes when i turn the steering wheel.
If you can make the noise by bouncing on the bumper, or turning the wheel while parked, you can find the noise. Take a rubber hose and have a friend make the noise while you chase it down. Sound like fun?
Or you can find a mechanic with a chassis ear. It has clamps that you can put on various suspensions and steering components to listen to different channels ?different parts? to locate the source of the noise while driving down the road.
My guess would be a sway bar link or bushing.
More than likely the blown tire had nothing to do with this problem. Since it happened about 4 months ago this would coincide with the onset of wintertime cold weather.
The most common cause of creaking noises in the suspension are sway bar bushings. With age and cold weather the rubber hardens and the sway bar tries to bind on the rubber. This will cause creaks, groans, squeaks, etc.
This is also a very common problem and is generally solved by lubricating the sway bar bushings with a silicone based grease or by replacing them.
Try pushing down real hard on the top of each front fender and note if you can hear the noise. If you can odds are it’s the sway bar bushings.
Other less likely causes of this problem would be a control arm through bolt, dry tie rod end or ball joint ball socket, strut coil spring pad, etc. H