I recently noticed a creaking noise coming from the front suspension (both sides, but maybe a little more pronounced on the driver’s side). The noise essentially sounds like it’s coming from a part directly in the power flow from the wheel to the body. There is no noise coming from the body itself, and the sound is not metal on metal, rather it sounds like a rubber bushing completely falling apart.
I first noticed the sound after changing the front brake calipers, brackets and pads and rotating the tires. However, the brackets, calipers and pads are tight (no noise) and rotating the tires to their original positions made no difference. Now I think the noise was there all along and maybe got a little worse over the last 400 miles. It is most noticeable on bad pavement with small potholes and imperfections and at ~30 mph.
Background: I replaced all front suspension components 2 years and 40k miles ago (at 90k miles, car now has 130k miles): lower control arms, sway bar links, sway bar bushings , wheel hubs, housings, dust shields, pillar mounts. The pole assemblies are aftermarket Monroe parts. One of the belts was faulty out of the box (didn’t compress at all), and was replaced at no cost by RockAuto at the time of the repair 2 years ago.
I have checked all the bushings, ball joint and wheel bearings. There is no play, no torn bundles, everything is tight and clean. The ball binding looks good and there is no play at all.
I have new mounts ordered due to my bad experience with the Monroe shocks and having already checked everything else.
Just wondering if there is anything else I should check?
40k miles / 2 years seems a short distance and time for any of these components to start failing.
