Creaking noise :s

[sar53]

hey guys, the past few days ive noticed a creaking coming from the back of my car that has now moved to the front drivers side of the car. Its totally random sometimes happening when i brake, sometimes around corners or just driving straight.

It only seems to happen in the rain and once the car is dry the next morning it doesnt happen. The creaking sounds a bit like when your handbrake needs tightening and you get into the car, as if the car moves a little and the handbrake is struggling? Any ideas at all what this could be?

Thanks xx

 

[markm]

Evening,

The symptoms you described are similar to a problem I had with my Ibiza.

It turned out to be the control arm rear bushes, these are on the front suspension wishbones. If you search those names there will be more information.

Also, along with the squeaking when wet, the steering felt very sloppy. Theres another symptom for you to look out for.

But take it in to a garage pref. a vw/seat specialist and they'll confirm it, unfortunatly a common problem on our Ibiza's.

Good luck

 

[sar53]

thankyou for your reply, i will get it checked out as soon as i have time. I went out this evening and it didnt make any noise at all, very strange that is just happens in the rain! i hope the parts arent too expensive if it is what you suggested! X

 

[Torquemonster]

I had the same creaking noise on my Ibiza.Used to hear it in the wet(mostly).Was at it's most pronounced after i left the car wash.Had it mot'd soon after and they found 2 broken front coil springs and 2 knackered front(rear) suspension arm bushes.Needless to say it failed the MOT.

 

[sar53]

ah no doesnt sound 2 good! I had my front springs done only a few months ago so hope it isnt that again! Maybe its just the bushes as you both have said. Any ideas what sort of price i may be having 2 fork out?! X

 

[Aimez]

Yeh mine is the same started up again now the bad weather is here! The wishbone bushes on mine are not really very worn as it sailed through an MOT in August but when they greased them it stopped the noise for a long time.

 

[markm]

ah no doesnt sound 2 good! I had my front springs done only a few months ago so hope it isnt that again! Maybe its just the bushes as you both have said. Any ideas what sort of price i may be having 2 fork out?! X

Hi,

Fortunatly, the actual price of the bush is only around 6-8 pounds each. Unfortunatly, its the cost of the labour thats the headache. If I remember correctly, It was an hour labour for each side.

I had a bit of other work done so the exact cost of the wishbone work was hidden. Maybe, at a guess, around £140-£150. I'll stand to be corrected on that.

Best thing to do is, get it confirmed as the wishbone rear bushes giving the problems, get a quote then ring round a few places. I'm sure if you mention the original figure quoted they will beat it, maybe not by much but it may save you a bit.

Good luck.

 

[conkerman]

1, Put front on front of front tyre.

2, Push backwards.

If the wheel moves backwards easily, the bushes are gone.

Can be replaced reasonably easily, though the solid bush from a cupra is recommended around these parts. I didn't bother as the bush lasted 75000 miles.

Its a very common problem if the bushes have gone.

Conks

 

[Aimez]

Be careful thou as I say the garage could have easily ripped me off and told me I needed them but they just needed a bit of grease in them and a year later they are still ok maybe a lil bit worn.

 

[conkerman]

Sorry, don't agree.

Unless the bush is just dry, then a dab of grease may stop the noise.

Once the voided rubber bush degrades and splits, the wheel alignment goes out of the window and the back of the wishbone can 'float' to an excessive degree. Grease does not fix this. The creak was the centre of the bush rubbing the outer. Thinking about it the grease may be stopping the creak but the bush may be totalled.

The bushes are about a fiver, the tool to get them out/in is about £80, otherwise the 'consoles' need to come out. Took about 1 1/2 per side to do. I took the consoles out.

What I found was that due to the excessive play in the suspension, the wishbone bolt had either suffered from Galling to flex, or was cross threaded from the factory, either way the console was totalled. If it was galling fro flex, then the bush had failed a while ago and I hadn't noticed.

Check forplay (Foot on wheel) the wheel whould move for aft a little and spring back as the bush deforms otherwise the wheel moves about 'floppily' and does not spring back so positively. Tyrekickers of the world unite.

Get underneath your car and have a look.

Conks

 

[Aimez]

What you mean you don't agree, my car sailed through it MOT in August and the bushes are fine? I am just saying in some cases they may not be ruined and not to get ripped off getting them replaced last year if it was not family member who works on my car. Not always the case thou obviously!

 

[conkerman]

What I mean is that the car can pass the MOT but still have worn/broken parts.

As an example, for the last 2 years, my ibiza has been making a very light knocking noise when driving slowly over small bumps (broken tarmac).

This turned out to be a track rod end, although there was no detectable play in the part it was enough to make a noise. Go figure

COnks

 

[Aimez]

No advisories about them being worn though and I asked him to check when it was MOT'd as back in January when it was serviced I got them to find out if they were causing the noise and they greased them for me and said they did not need changing yet and to see how they were come MOT.
Mine only makes the noise in the rain it rained all day heavily yesterday and the car was very squeaky today it's sunny and it's fine?!
I may well get them done very soon anyway as I have the parts and am having coilovers fitted and don't want to pay for wheel alignment twice.

 

[RUM4MO]

I'd have to agree that there is not much scope for greasing this TCA rear bush/wishbone hex pin. To make life simple when replacing the bush, the pin would have been greased to make fitting the wishbone pin back into the new bush possible - and for some time after that this grease would stop this point making any noises, but greasing a part used and still assembled wishbone and bush - ? Could be that silicon grease was sprayed in as that would not annoy the rubber too much, but it would not be able to successfully fully lubricate the pin so that a long(ish) term fix could be claimed.

As said already, mainly the creaking noises come from the broken web of the inner part allowing the inner part to move towards the outer part and chaff each other.

 

[Aimez]

Well guess the were trying to help save me spending all that money as I had just paid for a cambelt service so was a bit poor lol!

Why do they only make noise when wet then?

 

[conkerman]

Who knows.

Why does toast always fall butter side down?

As I said earlier, you need to get underneath, push and pull things and look for any signs of excessive movement/wear.

To be honest the MOT alone is not enough, that will only highlight when the bush fails completely. I have found a few suspension issues with my Ibiza since I decided to do a very noisy wheel bearing. The Garage that does the MOT's are extremely thorough, but they did not flag the worn (but not MOT failure) Track rod end, and the questionable ball joints. None was bad enough to fail, but they were clearly worn.


Conks

 

[kidinspace]

Why does toast always fall butter side down?

Because the buttered side is heavier....

My bushes where well and truely worn out, same sort of noises, replaced them and all is well.

.G.

RIGHT!

What a horrible day! Ended up breaking one of the new bushes when trying to install it, the first two pictures are of the old one that came off, and the second two are of the new one that broke when it was going in. I'm going to phone Seat tomorrow where I got the parts from and see what they say about the broken one. Ended up buying another bush from Dinbro which was much more solid on the casing.
I've never seen such badly worn bushes on a car with only 41k on the clock, my mate (who is a mechanic, who was helping me) also said he's never seen that on a car of this ages before.

The old bushes...

The "new" bush...

.G.

 

[Aimez]

Fair enough I see your point but I did ask him to check them while doing the MOT is what I am saying. He said they would maybe need doing soon but it won't fail the MOT and to leave it until it fails to save money.
But as I am having coilovers on and bearing and mounts I may as well get this over with lol and the noise is really irritating in the wet!