Front Control Arm Help
 

I have an 87 911 Carrera that I just recently purchased. I am new to Porsche so some of my terms might be incorrect. I have a terrible squeak that is coming from the front end. It makes this squeak on small road irregularities and when pushing down on the fender or bumper. It sounds like it is coming from under the caps that are bolted to the front where the control arm attaches. Does this make any sense? This squeak is really ruining the Porsche experience for me. Could someone give me some advice on what to do first to try to further pinpoint this squeak and what parts should be replaced. I do not ever see this being a track or DE car it is only street driven. It has 82k miles and I do not believe it has ever had any suspension parts replaced.

Thanks in advance, Scott

I've had the same problems. From my research it looks like it might be worn A-Arm bushings. Coincidently there seems to be more noise after some extended drives in the rain.

It looks like the 2 best ways to eliminate the noise are new Polybronze Bushings from Elephant Racing which Pelican Carries or New A-Arms with factory bushing which are even more $$$ People seem to continue to have squeaks with the less expensive Poly-Graphite replacements...which require more fitting as well. It might be more than that...hopefully someone else will chime in as well.

The noise is more than likely the torsion bar rubbing on the ID of the a-arm. It is cuased by a worn or "flowed" a-arm bushing causing the torsion bar to longer be centered in the a-arm. Edgemar posted some good fixes for this..........

Cheers

So is the A-arm bushing under that cap that I posted in my inquiry? Is an A-arm the same as control arm? And is this replacement something that can be done while it is on the car?
Scott

The a arm is the same as the control arm. Here is a article about changing the bushings:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/911_suspension_bushings/911_suspension_bushings_front2.htm

The search button it is your friend. Many people have posted abut problems similiar to yours. There is a vast amount of info regarding this subject on this site. Be sure to get a 101 projects book if you don't already have one.

Good Luck!

Nobody mentioned swaybar bushing's?

I had that problem. New swaybar bushings didn't help, so I installed the Elephant Racing PolyBronze bushings with the self-aligning kit. That fixed it for $500 or so including the torch I bought and the one t-bar I replaced that was worn from rubbing (I replaced it with a nice used one from PartsHeaven for $25).

I don't know what kind of tools and DIY skills you have but if you like working on your car yourself this is project you can probably do. Hardest part for me was getting the front sway bar back in.

Like the previous poster said - so some searches. There are great discussions about all of this...