My 02 GT has had a very annoying squeak that was progressively getting worse such that even the smallest bumps would lead to a "chirp" from the back. I was doing some investigating yesterday and noticed that the sway bar didn't seem particularly well affixed to the lower control arms; if I grabbed it and tugged on it I detected motion where I shouldn't have.
This morning I took out my 13mm socket and torque wrench and went at the 4 mounting bolts. The two on the driver's side were loose (like three turns loose...) and the passenger side were tight but not to the 41 ft-lb spec. A test drive showed that the squeak is now all but gone; on rough and uneven roads I might have heard a noise perhaps twice. A vast improvement over what it was before I tightened things down.
So I think the noise was/is the sway bar (for those with squeaks, it's an easy check with the car on the ground and a few extensions on the sockets...) But there is still a periodic chirp there still, if very infrequent, and it's exactly the same character as before. I suspect that the sway bar is fretting against the lower control arms a bit because it's only got two bolts on each side and the flimsy OEM LCAs are probably flexing too. Perhaps that what led the bolts to work loose.
Is there an easy fix for this? Some sort of teflon or nylon spacers to isolate the bar from the LCAs? Some sort of stiffener that could be installed? I can live with it the way it is now but if there's a way to quiet it completely I'd be a happy camper...
This morning I took out my 13mm socket and torque wrench and went at the 4 mounting bolts. The two on the driver's side were loose (like three turns loose...) and the passenger side were tight but not to the 41 ft-lb spec. A test drive showed that the squeak is now all but gone; on rough and uneven roads I might have heard a noise perhaps twice. A vast improvement over what it was before I tightened things down.
So I think the noise was/is the sway bar (for those with squeaks, it's an easy check with the car on the ground and a few extensions on the sockets...) But there is still a periodic chirp there still, if very infrequent, and it's exactly the same character as before. I suspect that the sway bar is fretting against the lower control arms a bit because it's only got two bolts on each side and the flimsy OEM LCAs are probably flexing too. Perhaps that what led the bolts to work loose.
Is there an easy fix for this? Some sort of teflon or nylon spacers to isolate the bar from the LCAs? Some sort of stiffener that could be installed? I can live with it the way it is now but if there's a way to quiet it completely I'd be a happy camper...