Creaking, squealy, grating sound coming from front underneath car.

[erp52]

My 94 Marquis has this weird creaking sound that's coming from the front underneath. It's like the spooky door that opens in an old movie. It comes and goes. But especially when I turn the wheels. It's like something needs a little WD-40 oil somewhere. My mechanic says it might be the ball joints? They're supposed to be sealed, but can, over time, lose the grease? He did something yesterday with them, somehow squirting grease in them. He said, drive it a while, and see what happens. If the sound is still there, bring it back, and we'll try something else. Well, it's still there, and today, I'm going back to him to see what else he can do. Any ideas? Ed

[LithiumCobalt]

Bad ball joints. They are likely rusted on the inside and worn. No amount of oiling is going to save them now. If they are bad enough to be screeching, they're ready to be changed.

[gadget73]

If they're making noise, they need changing. If they are groaning like that, you're at risk of having it come apart while driving. Typical failure on the stock lowers is somewhere in the 120-140k mile range. If thats where you are, have them changed and have the rest of the front end parts inspected while he's in there.

[IPreferDIY]

I just finished a complete front end rebuild on my 2000 Grand Marquis LS. My ordeal started when I heard creaking in the front end on the driver's side after changing my brakes in July 2013. The ball joint seemed the likely culprit, so as a temporary fix to get me through the winter, I cut a small slit in the rubber boot so I could put some oil in there. Using grease seems pretty useless to me. I can't see how the grease would actually work its way down into the joint. With oil, there's a much better chance that it will seep down and soften up the original grease, which has likely dried out rather than gone somewhere. This worked for me, but it ended up being only a partial temporary fix.

If you go the oil route, be careful with the aerosol sprays. Since the air pressure has nowhere to go, it will come right back out at you. You have to use the lowest amount of spray that you can. One possible alternative would be to use the kind of syringes that come with some of the inkjet refill kits. I'm not sure what oil would be ideal. I just used WD-40 on the initial occasions and the red Rust Check rust inhibitor on subsequent occasions since that's what I happened to have.

Contrary to what seems to be the popular belief, the lower ball joints are not "sealed" in the sense of being isolated from the surrounding atmosphere. They are simply non-greaseable. Here's a photo showing what the top of the ball joint looks like with the rubber boot removed and with the grease softened up from the oils that I used.



PLEASE NOTE THAT THE UP AND DOWN PLAY IN THIS BALL JOINT WAS ABOUT 3/16" WHEN I GOT AROUND TO REPLACING IT RECENTLY. OILING IS ONLY A TEMPORARY FIX (though I have to wonder whether oiling a non-greaseable ball joint before it starts to go bad will actually prolong its life). IF IT'S MAKING NOISE, IT'S DEFINITELY TIME TO CHANGE IT. You can actually see videos on YouTube from people who have experienced the ball separating from the socket, which will inevitably cause all kinds of damage.

I ended up getting a cheap front suspension and steering joint kit on eBay, and I'm glad I went that route. The rubber boot on my Pitman arm was ripped, and the joint was rusted and pretty much seized. My idler arm and outer tie rod ends were so tight that they must have been on their way to being seized. The upper ball joints and inner tie rod ends did not have any slop in them, but they were certainly loose, and I wouldn't have wanted to make changes on a piecemeal basis, especially when you have to get an alignment done afterwards.

Curiously, my stabilizer bar links were the least worn components. I've read so much about other people needing to replace theirs, but mine were just fine. Since I had new ones in the kit, I replaced them anyway.

You should note that if you get greaseable inner tie rod ends, you might have to grind down the ends of the nearby lower control arm bolts to prevent them from shearing off the grease zerks. If you get non-greaseable components, it wouldn't hurt to use a grease gun needle to put grease into the rubber boot before installation, without puncturing the boot. You can try to loosen the narrow part of the boot from the metal part and shoot some grease in. At a minimum, I would think this would provide a grease barrier that would help guard against moisture.

Anyway, after I replaced the various joints, I quickly learned that the ball joint wasn't the only source of creaking. It turned out that one of the lower control arm bushings on the driver's side was creaking during up and down movements. After changing just the lower control arm bushings, I could feel how much stiffer my front end was. My front end also seemed to be a bit higher. But, I still had some creaking when steering, and I could feel that the steering would benefit from changing the upper control arm bushings. I also heard some creaking in the rear, so I also got some rear control arms and a Watts link.

I made other comments about this experience in the following thread: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...ndling-package

Since changing the lower control arm bushings seemed to affect ride height, I kept track of the ride height and found that my front end was 1/4" higher after replacing the upper bushings. Unfortunately, I still had some creaking.

It turned out that my front stabilizer bar bushings were in very bad shape, and I just replaced them yesterday. I will be starting a new thread with respect to how badly my stabilizer bar had corroded. I will most likely be doing the rear stabilizer bar bushings and links in the foreseeable future, just for the sake of completeness.

[gadget73]

90 degree zerks on the inners might work out, or I have this handy dandy adapter that lets me get in there without feeding the grease gun across the top of the control arm.



The Ford official method is to replace the entire control arm assembly when the lower ball joint is due. Its mostly so you get new control arm bushings at the same time as the ball joint. The arm itself isn't so much the problem but it takes the service guy less time to swap the whole arm vs rebuilding it.

[erp52]

Wow, thanks guys for all that information. I went back to my mechanic, and he agreed with all that was said. And is proceeding accordingly. Ed

[IPreferDIY]

90 degree zerks on the inners might work out, or I have this handy dandy adapter that lets me get in there without feeding the grease gun across the top of the control arm. ...

I guess the older models have more room. On mine, I had done the passenger side first and tried the steering, and the grease zerk was rubbing against the end of the bolt enough to interfere with the steering. On the driver's side, the grease zerk would have literally been sheared off if I had not been aware of the issue.

After grinding the ends of the bolts, I ended up getting a 90 degree adapter for my grease gun instead of 90 degree zerks. The adapter is great. I still have to get the steering in a suitable position to use it on the inner tie rod ends though.

[gadget73]

The earlier center link has different geometry. Possibly thats why it works on my car and not yours. I had considered changing it over, but I really have no idea what advantage, if any, there is. I have the later front brakes, spindles and steering gear, but the linkages are all 1986 still.