Boxster Creeking/squeeking Front Suspension

[mikehh]

Hi, can somebody please help! I have a 2001 Boxster S, I've owned it since November 2006 at which time all seemed well.

However, as soon as we had some hot weather, I started to hear a slight creeking/ sqeeking noise from the front end of the car. As time has gone on, the noises have grown louder and louder to the point where I no longer want to drive the car.

I have taken a look at the bushes etc and have sprayed them with a light silicone spray which initially solved the problem (but only for a few days). When the car is stationary, if i turn the steering slightly both ways I can hear the creeking noise. If I bounce the front end of the car, again I can hear the noise. When the car is jacked up and the weight taken off the suspension, the noise cannot be heared when the steering is turned.

I cannot pin point the location of the noises, but they are slowly driving me mad. Does anybody have any ideas as to what is causing it?

Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

Most likely culprit is the lower wishbone ball joint. It's a very common problem. You have to change the complete arm, as the joint isn't available separately. They cost about £150, and it's less than an hour's work for an indy.

 

[Bull996]

What he said. Its lovely after its done!

 

[mikehh]

Thanks gents for your replies, I will try changing them ASAP. I will let you know how it turns out.

Much appreciated.

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

If I were you, I'd just change the one which is creaking, which I did two weeks ago, as it happens. AFAIK it was the original part too. For some reason it is usually the driver's side which goes first. (I know that sounds stupid, but it's true). The other one might go for thousands of miles before it starts to creak (if it ever does).

 

[mikehh]

Thanks again Richard,
To follow on, Do you know where can I purchase the assembly? Are they a main dealer part only, or can I buy from Porsche specialist/ motor factor or the like?

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

You can get them from www.eurocarparts.com. Check the price with them first. The Porsche list price has just jumped £30 this week, and they now list them at £189.35 +VAT. (Ouch!)

 

[mikehh]

[] Happy Days!! Problem over, no more squeeks!!!![]

After reading your replies, I decided to take your advice and replace the track control arms as both were squeeking and driving me mad!

Upon checking, I decided this was indeed a simple job, one that I felt happy to take on myself.

After lifting the car and removing the wheels, it is simply a case of removing two retaining bolts, ball joint nut, and cracking the taper ball joint from the knuckle. Cracking the ball joint is by far the hardest part of removing the track control arm, and care should be taken not to damage the boot of the ball joint whilst removing (Reason will be clear later)

With the arm removed,upon inspection, it seemed that there was nothing wrong with the taper ball joint! However, the same could not be said for the two bushes. My car has just passeed 40K miles, and I would not expect the bushes to be in the state that they were.

Looking on the web, I found a site http://www.powerflex.co.uk offering uprated replacement bushes for approximately £40 per side. This seemed to be worth a try, so I contacted some distributers to confirm prices and delivery. I only wanted to change one side to start with in order to confirm if it was the bushes causing the problem or not.
I found that some suppliers were not prepared to sell just one of each of the two bushes, they insisted on selling 4 of each (enough to replace all 4 track control arms). However, as luck would have it, my local distributer ((Peter LLoyd Rally) http://www.peterlloydrallying.co.uk/ ) would basicaly supply what ever I wanted, and also offered very good prices.

Removing the old bushes is not the simplest of tasks, but with a little effort they will come out. (For help on removing the old bushes, look on ebay, search for 'boxster suspension bushes', this will return one result (Larkspeed performance and styling). Read through their ad. This should be help enough!

Fitting the new bushes is really easy. They can simply be pushed into position. A mallet may help with this stage though!!

To refit the arm to the car, first remove the plastic bottom pan. Secure the ball joint and outer bush first, then fit the inner bush last. I used a hydraulic car jack to position the bush in line with the bolt holes.

This turned out to fix the problem on the side I changed, so obvoiosly I repeated for the other side. Again, this fixed the squeeks.

The cost for this fix was just £84 plus my time. To my mind this beats £360 + Vat!!

I also had the tracking checked on completion to make sure everything was aligned correctly. I would strongly advise this if anybody else chages the bushes as I have.

 

[Laurence Gibbs]

Well done Mike, this concurs with what I found on my control arms. The diagonal arm bush(on the lower control arm) delaminates and causes the squeaks. The bush is designed to yeald in one direction and has "cut outs" in it. This makes it weak to start with. I found gravel stuck in mine. The powerflex bushes are a good move as they don't have the "cut outs" and will be stronger, of course you will loose some compliance but that will only sharpen the handling.
I replaced both my arms with Porsche replacements but if they start to squeak again i will do the same as you. BTW what ball joint splitter did you use? I found my standard one a bit small and had to use a fork/wedge type one(the sort you hammer into the joint) which damaged the boots on the old arms!

 

[JCB..]

Nice, useful post Mike.

 

[mikehh]

Hi Laurence. With regard to your question, I didn't actually use a ball joint splitter to do the the job. I used a Torq socket in the top of the taper and proceeded to hit it with a copper mallet until it split!! I know this is a very poor method to follow, but when needs must!! In case I slipped with the mallet, I left the nyloc nut on the top couple of threads until the joint split. As I mentioned previously, I didn't want to damage the ball joint 'boot', so therfore refrained from using any type of ball joint splitter. (Just to let you know, I believe I used a T45 Torq socket on a 1/4" extention bar)

I hope you will never need the info, but just in case!!

Mike.

 

[mikehh]

One more thing! Whilst the arms were off the car, I removed the 'boot clip' from the joints cleaned out all existing grease. Cleaned them with WD40 / penetrating spray, used compressed air to blow the joints clean & dry then re-lubricated with a heavy silicone grease spray. Replaced clips.

To confirm that it was the bushes at fault, I actually refitted one of the arms to the car prior to cleaning and lubricating the joints!

Mike.

 

[Laurence Gibbs]

thanks for the info Mike I was wondering how you did it without damaging the boots. As a side note if you use a fork/wedge as i did there is a very good chance you will not only damage the boot but also the aluminium on the control arm inside the boot! probably not bad enough to write the arm of but close!!!(dont ask how i know[]) A bigger version of the more normal style clamp splitter i guess would not have this problem as it works higher up on the top of the boot. I got my new arms through Porscheshop at considerably less than the quoted opc figure.