So I backed into a pole in a parking lot the other day with my 1996 Honda Accord. After that I’ve noticed a creaking noise when I get into my car and when I’m driving it, EXCEPT when I take hard turns… then there’s no noise. I can reproduce the noise by pushing on my bumper. The only visible damage to my bumper is a little scraping around where the exhaust pipe is. Is this just the bumper itself making this creaking noise or could it be something more serious?
I can reproduce the noise by pushing on my bumper.
Do you mean pushing DOWN on the bumper, as if to make the car bounce up and down?
You could start by getting an assistant to duplicate pushing on the bumper (or pushing down on the fender on the appropriate corner of the car) while you look around underneath the car for source of the noise. It may be easy to locate the source of the noise, but if not, it may help to use a piece of hose with one end held to your ear and the other pressed against various parts which are moving to identify the sound. You may be able to confirm by carefully touching any part you suspect while the car is being bounced. Creaking sometimes comes from rubber suspension bushings, but you seem to have a direct correlation with the encounter with the pole in the parking lot…so look first at anything which your logic tells you might have been somehow affected by the collision. You’ll have to be lying on the ground, a bright flashlight will help.
Thanks for the response. It’s a bushing, alright.