Expy/Navi Rear "Ball Joint" Bushings.... noise

[Hamfisted]

Had an annoying groaning and "clicking" going around corners (right-hand turns in my case...) coming from the rear left wheel area for the past 30k miles. Replaced the complete strut/spring assemblies on all 4 corners to no avail. Ended up being the left rear lower "ball joint" bushing on the left rear. Visually inspecting the bushing didn't show any signs of damage or wear, other than the bushing rubber being fairly soft and pliable. The new bushing rubber was stiff, but otherwise looked the same. Anyway my bushing puller kit had the correct size for the extraction of the bushing, which made it pretty easy with the air impact wrench. Took about an hour per side. So if you've got a Gen-2 or 3 with 120k+ miles on it and you're getting a groaning around corners from the rear corners take a look at replacing the lower bushings.


-Mike



Rear lower A-arm bushings.... New on the left .... Old on the right





http://www.ebay.com/itm/27pc-Univer...et-/201220989383?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

 

[Adieu]

Avatar is mighty distracting... were you saying something, sorry?

 

[Bedrck47]

Avatar is mighty distracting... were you saying something, sorry?

Careful your brain can't handle all that stress. Just think of that and you won't need back up lights

 

[Adieu]

My brain has nought to do with the matter

 

[XR4Ti]

Thanks for this thread.

Had a knocking sound coming from the rear when accelerating/braking. Also had some creaking/groaning noises. Found some play in a rear hub but after replacing that, the problem was still there. Same after lubricating bushings. A couple of forum threads here got me looking more critically at the rear knuckle attach points.

Found some play in the rear knuckle "cross axis ball joints", which as discussed earlier are basically bushings with some angular compliance in the inner bushing. Passenger side top and driver side bottom were clearly worn on mine.

So I just replaced them all but left all the control arm-to-frame bushings in place (as they seemed fine). The rear knuckle holds a ball joint in the top; the lower control arm holds the bottom ball joint. I used a loan-a-tool ball joint install/removal set in combination with some sockets. An actual bushing press tool would have worked better.