Last week I bought a clean but high-mileage ES300 to kick around town and keep wear and tear off my truck. It has the usual old Toyota maladies but it's relatively straight and smooth-running. The suspension (front especially) clatters over bumps and generally feels a little tired, but the shocks still ride nice and don't let the car continue to bounce down the road after a bump. I'm currently replacing the front control arms as an entire assembly because I noticed the old arm bushings were pretty dry rotted and cracked, and I thought it would be nice to have new ball joints while I was at it. The sway bar links don't seem to be overly loose or worn when you grab them and give them a good shake, but I'm not sure how to test the strut top mounts to check for noise there. Do you guys have foolproof methods for individually zeroing in on clunks and rattles? I wanted to do the control arms for peace of mind, but otherwise I do like to try and at least vaguely aim the parts cannon before firing.
If it's got high mileage, it's probably a combo of every rubber part being shot. The strut top mounts are certainly a good place to start, but if you are going to have it that far apart, you may as well replace everything while you are in there.
In reply to RacerBoy75 :
You're not wrong, but if only one thing is making noise, I'd like to just fix that and drive it. Other than the control arm bushings nothing looks drastically worn out.
I like to jack it up and whack the tire with a deadblow to duplicate the noise while my ear is right next to it.
It's easy to isolate sway bar end links - just disconnect them and go for a drive.
Chassis Ears are a great tool for this. Basically a set of 4 clip-on microphones, a headset and a switching box. Have someone drive the car while you switch between inputs and the loudest one is where the noise is. They're wireless now but ours had wires on them. Looks like you can get knockoffs on eBay for about $50.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Holy crap; that's awesome.
Rattle = sway bar link
Clunk = worn out shock
Clank = worn out universal joints
Squeak = control arm rubbing against pivot bolt due to worn bushings
Wum wum wum wumwumwumwum wum wum wum - bad wear pattern on tires
Squeal = brake pad wear indicators rubbing on rotor
Growl = bad wheel bearing (or you've got a tiger in your trunk)
thwip thwip thwipthwipthwipthwipthwip = somebody's put a zip tie around your driveshaft
Click Clack CHUNKCHUNKCHUNKCHUNK - belt fed .50 cal just opened up on your position
Sway bar bushings. You will absolutely not be able to feel any movement in them without the wheels flat on the ground, or a drive on hoist.
They are cheap and easy, and make a less sharp noise than a sway bar link, but under the same circumstances. Sometimes you can make the noise by grabbing the roof rail and rocking the car side to side.
Jesse Ransom said:
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Holy crap; that's awesome.
Agreed, I didn't know such a thing existed
Streetwiseguy said:
Sway bar bushings. You will absolutely not be able to feel any movement in them without the wheels flat on the ground, or a drive on hoist.
They are cheap and easy, and make a less sharp noise than a sway bar link, but under the same circumstances. Sometimes you can make the noise by grabbing the roof rail and rocking the car side to side.
Disconnecting the sway bar end links will also help diagnose this one.
Audibly, a bad end link sounds a lot like a bad strut bearing or loose upper nut. Both make a rattling/clicking noise whenever the wheel changes direction up/down. You should be able to duplicate the noise in your garage by bouncing the car. A shock internal problem is a deeper clunk.
Thanks everyone. The new control arms are installed, now waiting on brake pads before I do a test run. I'm thinking I'll just temporarily remove the sway bar end links to test those if I still have noise.
FWIW, fresh anti-roll bar bushings have helped me eliminate that old car creaking.
