Front suspension squeak

[iamtheari]

In the winter, my 2004 Cayenne Turbo front suspension squeaks under moderate to large travel. Going down the road it's fine, but coming out of parking lots or going over speed bumps gets a good squeak as the suspension moves up and down. I am fairly confident that both sides are squeaking since there are dueling squeaks when the vehicle rocks side-to-side in the rare occasions I hit something just right for that to happen.

There is also a bit of a chucking/clunking when I hit badly washboarded areas of gravel roads at normal speeds, say 45mph.

I recently had a four-wheel alignment done and the shop said that one tie rod was worn out so they replaced that. No other problems reported by the alignment shop. The vehicle behaves well on the road at all speeds except that it sometimes pulls what feels like the wrong direction when driving in badly-rutted asphalt roads (our highways were built to meet agricultural needs and now see roughly 10,000 heavy trucks, many well over the weight limit, each day thanks to the oil boom, so you get dual-tire ruts up to 5 inches deep in places). But I think that's more a function of the stance of the Cayenne vs. the semis than it is a symptom of suspension problems. Driving fast on twisty roads, the car is very predictable.

I've done some searching online and found that one common problem is that the lower control arm bushings wear out. Reports vary on whether the bushings can be replaced without replacing the control arms. Does anyone have a procedure and/or parts number list for either option? It looks possible to buy the three bearings:

955.341.588.10 (2 x $10.25 Pelican price)
955.341.242.62 (2 x $33.00)
955.343.243.01 (2 x $10.50)

Total parts: $107.50 w/ free shipping

Or the lower wishbone complete, including the above bearings:

955.341.017.33 driver side ($272.50)
955.341.018.33 passenger side ($296.25)

Total parts: $568.75 (also free shipping, thanks Pelican)


Another problem reported related to the drop links, which I infer to be the anti-roll bar links:

955.343.069.00 (2 x $30.75)

Total parts: $61.50 (still free shipping, and impressed with the variety of items Pelican stocks)


Someone else reported that a dealer finally replaced the "suspension mounts" to solve his similar noise issues which did not go away with new lower control arms, but he did not report back which mounts these were. The shock mounts for air suspension are 955.343.018.10 and $51.50 per corner from Pelican. But maybe he meant something more nefarious. Ideas?


Also, how nasty of a job are these various tasks to do? I can buy parts all day long, but eventually am going to be stuck going to a dealer 400 miles away if they are beyond my abilities...and obviously it would be much nicer to drive the vehicle as-is to the dealer than to push it onto a trailer and haul it there half-disassembled if I bite off more than I can chew. All input welcome. Thanks!

[xTapouTx]

A bit of an old post I know but I've been dealing with this on both of my CTT's for years now. Thus far I've replaced upper and lower control arms and that didn't help. Dealership said "it's something faulty inside your air shock". Before I go off spending crazy amounts of cash I was hoping you or anyone can chime in here as to what they have done to resolve their issue.

Thank you!!

[iamtheari]

I haven't done anything since posting the above, at least not on this problem. The noise seems to be mostly in low temperatures. I do have an intermittent air suspension warning and a dealership told me that it might be a valve on one or more of the shocks rather than the pump that needs work. The code was not present when they had the car, so they could not confirm the actual problem. I had always suspected the pump needed to be rebuilt, and I have the seal kit to do that but haven't had a chance to actually get the pump out to work on it. So maybe your dealer is right and I have the same problem. Did they give any more specific direction than "something faulty inside your air shock"?

[Zack at Pelican Parts]

Have you checked the sway bar endlinks, as well?

They're relatively inexpensive and easy to replace (find them here in our store), and they'd be a good place to start. For the DIY replacement, click here and jump down to Figures 2-6.

[iamtheari]

Zack: Thanks for the tip. It looks like it would be just as easy to replace them rather than trying to diagnose them, especially given the high mileage of my car and the low price of the parts. It also looks like it would be a good time to replace the sway bar bushings while I'm at it, and that doing this during my next oil change is a good time. So I'll put together a project list.

[Zack at Pelican Parts]

Originally Posted by iamtheari

Zack: Thanks for the tip. It looks like it would be just as easy to replace them rather than trying to diagnose them, especially given the high mileage of my car and the low price of the parts. It also looks like it would be a good time to replace the sway bar bushings while I'm at it, and that doing this during my next oil change is a good time. So I'll put together a project list.

No problem!

I've done my fair share of tracking down suspension noises, and I find that sway bar bushings and endlinks are usually the culprit of annoying suspension noises. And they're usually the cheapest place to start, too.