SQUEAKY FRONT SUSPENSION

[jmulholl]

HEY: I JUST GOT TOLD BY THE STEALERSHIP IN MY TOWN THAT MY 99 STS WITH 74,500 MILES ON IT NEEDS ALMOST THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF STRUTS, BECAUSE THE FRONT END SQUEAKS WHEN YOU HIT A BUMP. THIS SEEMS A BIT MUCH. SINCE THE CAR DRIVES AND HANDLES GREAT, WITH NO CHANGE IN RIDE SINCE NEW, I AM NOT CONVINCED THAT THE STRUTS ARE MAKING THE SQUEAK. I SUSPECT THE LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS OR SOME RUBBER PART. MY WIFE IS ON MY CASE BAD TO FIX THE SQUEAK. ANY TIPS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

[BodybyFisher]

An indication that you need struts is bottoming out over speed bumps, curb cuts, and rises and drops in the road. If you find yourself feeling scared loading the car with luggage and your family and hitting bumps, that is an indication that you need struts.

I have a 96, at 46000 miles I needed struts badly, not doing the job, ruined my springs.

While your struts could be bad, so many things could cause your sqeaking, strut mounts, stabilizer bar bushings, strut rod bushings, control arm bushings, etc.. It is very difficult to diagnose your problem in text here... I recently rebuilt my entire front end using passive struts (non OEM) and the front end is 100% better.

Take the wheel off and push the strut boot up to see if you have leakage where the shaft enters the strut body, don't forget to replace the strut boot back down to stop dirt from entering..

If the front end squeeks while its being physically rocked, I would have someone rock it and get under their with some sort of listening device and do some listening to localize the nose.. My rough guess is that you are getting noise from your strut mounts. Mike

[Cadillac Jim]

My 1997 ETC has all original suspension at over 118,000 miles. I can hear a slight creaking from the front end on large bumps like speed humps but nothing that the passengers notice. I routinely hit my concrete driveway ramp at a 45-degree angle at about 10 mph to go home and everything is well-controlled by the suspension; I warn friends with sport-utes and commody-ride sedans not to try it. With my wife in the car, I hit it at 5 mph and she doesn't complain.

My experience is absolutely no guarantee that your dealer isn't right. I strongly suggest that you follow BodybyFisher's advice. The Cadillac suspensions are very sophisticated (unequal length alloy wishbones -- on the rear!) and parts are expensive, but they rarely give trouble unless abused or some incident such as jack or service rack damage. I would find exactly what is causing the squeek before I spent a dime.

BodybyFisher tells us how to find the sqeek in your driveway. If you aren't up for that, then, since your squeek is bad enough for your wife to get on your case about it, a good mechanic with a service lift that hoists the car by the tires and one or two two corn-fed assistants hanging on the front bumper can find your squeek in a few seconds.

[BodybyFisher]

My 1997 ETC has all original suspension at over 118,000 miles. I can hear a slight creaking from the front end on large bumps like speed humps but nothing that the passengers notice. I routinely hit my driveway at a 45-degree angle at about 10 mph to go home and everything is well-controlled by the suspension; I warn friends with sport-utes and commody-ride sedans not to try it.

That is amazing, before I did my struts, if I did that, my nose would have dug in...

[Cadillac Jim]

BodybyFisher -- I fine-tune my speed and angle to not bottom. There are those who tell me to slow down on speed bumps to "save my shocks" and such, but I keep it clean of salt and park it inside, and am careful about who works on it.

Do you have any idea why your struts lost their damping at 46,000 miles? Whatever it was, I want to avoid it if I can. With my purist mentality, I would go for the OEM $trut$ if I had to replace them.

[mikeal1892]

CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS ,

they will suggest you but new ones for 400 for each side . I have a crash sheet of the item numbers for replacement. I think the bushings are only 12 a piece. I still havent done mine yet, but they told the preivous owener of my sls the same thing over 2years ago when it had 60k miles on it. I just spray mine with pb blaster everytime I change my oil.

Michael

[GreenMachine]

If you have another shop you know and trust take it there, for all it worth could just be something that needs to be lubed up.

[JimD]

HEY: I JUST GOT TOLD BY THE STEALERSHIP IN MY TOWN THAT MY 99 STS WITH 74,500 MILES ON IT NEEDS ALMOST THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF STRUTS, BECAUSE THE FRONT END SQUEAKS WHEN YOU HIT A BUMP. THIS SEEMS A BIT MUCH. SINCE THE CAR DRIVES AND HANDLES GREAT, WITH NO CHANGE IN RIDE SINCE NEW, I AM NOT CONVINCED THAT THE STRUTS ARE MAKING THE SQUEAK. I SUSPECT THE LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS OR SOME RUBBER PART. MY WIFE IS ON MY CASE BAD TO FIX THE SQUEAK. ANY TIPS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

As a test, you could hit the stabilizer bar bushings with a little oil and go looking for bumps. Next try hitting the links from the bar to the lower control arm with a little oil. Repeat the bumps.

Do these little tests one at a time.

And I'll bet money the ride has changed; the change is so subtle over time that you have not noticed the difference.

Front OEM struts can be had for ~~$500.00 per copy parts cost.

If you are willing to compromise with "passive" struts, I can get you a part # for the ACDelco pieces. A lot less money.

Strut installation on the '98 - '04 Seville chassis is a snap. And no alignment is required!!

Been there - done that.

[mikeal1892]

does the dic have a read out about the speeding being limited yet ?

[BodybyFisher]

BodybyFisher -- I fine-tune my speed and angle to not bottom. There are those who tell me to slow down on speed bumps to "save my shocks" and such, but I keep it clean of salt and park it inside, and am careful about who works on it.

Do you have any idea why your struts lost their damping at 46,000 miles? Whatever it was, I want to avoid it if I can. With my purist mentality, I would go for the OEM $trut$ if I had to replace them.

I agree 100% about the OEM struts, but for a car with 75000 miles, one that I plan to sell, I found it hard to spend $3200 for OEM struts just for the PARTS, not including the strut mounts and all four springs.. If this was an STS, I would have gone OEM... I just wanted a car that I could take on a trip with my family and not worry about it being on the ground....

I don't know what caused my struts to be bad so early, I really don't, but I do know that the first trip I took with my family, I came over a rise and HIT the ground FLAT and HARD on the Belt Parkway doing about 60 as she had NO dampening of the body downwards.... that happened before I knew she had a dampening problem...I drove it 30,000 miles like that and my springs, wheels and suspension took a beating. When I removed them, they has no resistance if you pushed them inward, you could push them in with your forefinger! This allowed the wheel assembly to rise or the body to fall unimpeded. In New York City, this is something you don't want with the potholes. My wet weather handling was horrible also as I am sure the tires were leaving the road.

If you are able to drive into your driveway that fast it seems your struts are fine...

[mikeal1892]

I would replace them with some off of car-part.com I have bought several things from that site not only for my car but for a friends ETC as well..

Michael

[The Fred]

MY WIFE IS ON MY CASE BAD TO FIX THE SQUEAK. ANY TIPS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

Well, I'd tell my wife to shut up and drive the car or buy her own..

Of course, I am all alone and single so your mileage may vary

I guess it just depends on which squeek is more inexpensive to get rid of

[BodybyFisher]

MY WIFE IS ON MY CASE BAD TO FIX THE SQUEAK. ANY TIPS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

Well, I'd tell my wife to shut up and drive the car or buy her own..

Of course, I am all alone and single so your mileage may vary

I guess it just depends on which squeek is more inexpensive to get rid of

From the voice of experience, its much cheaper to get rid of the front end squeek.

[jmulholl]

HEY: I JUST GOT TOLD BY THE STEALERSHIP IN MY TOWN THAT MY 99 STS WITH 74,500 MILES ON IT NEEDS ALMOST THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF STRUTS, BECAUSE THE FRONT END SQUEAKS WHEN YOU HIT A BUMP. THIS SEEMS A BIT MUCH. SINCE THE CAR DRIVES AND HANDLES GREAT, WITH NO CHANGE IN RIDE SINCE NEW, I AM NOT CONVINCED THAT THE STRUTS ARE MAKING THE SQUEAK. I SUSPECT THE LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS OR SOME RUBBER PART. MY WIFE IS ON MY CASE BAD TO FIX THE SQUEAK. ANY TIPS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

[jmulholl]

Hey it's me, Dr Jay. I got miffed this am and tore into the car. Took the sway bar off, cleaned it up and greased it good. Still the squeak. I really appreciate the help from you all. I am going to try two more things. I going to hook up a two way radio to the lower control arm near the bushings and see what I get. Next I will attach it to the shocks. I guess I should take JimD's advice and go with the passive shocks and get it over with. I forgot how how helpful everyone was in this group. I use to be a member several years ago (jmulholl). Max if you are out there, it is me, the guy with the possum in his back yard.

[jmulholl]

HEY: I JUST GOT TOLD BY THE STEALERSHIP IN MY TOWN THAT MY 99 STS WITH 74,500 MILES ON IT NEEDS ALMOST THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF STRUTS, BECAUSE THE FRONT END SQUEAKS WHEN YOU HIT A BUMP. THIS SEEMS A BIT MUCH. SINCE THE CAR DRIVES AND HANDLES GREAT, WITH NO CHANGE IN RIDE SINCE NEW, I AM NOT CONVINCED THAT THE STRUTS ARE MAKING THE SQUEAK. I SUSPECT THE LOWER CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS OR SOME RUBBER PART. MY WIFE IS ON MY CASE BAD TO FIX THE SQUEAK. ANY TIPS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

As a test, you could hit the stabilizer bar bushings with a little oil and go looking for bumps. Next try hitting the links from the bar to the lower control arm with a little oil. Repeat the bumps.

Do these little tests one at a time.

And I'll bet money the ride has changed; the change is so subtle over time that you have not noticed the difference.

Front OEM struts can be had for ~~$500.00 per copy parts cost.

If you are willing to compromise with "passive" struts, I can get you a part # for the ACDelco pieces. A lot less money.

Strut installation on the '98 - '04 Seville chassis is a snap. And no alignment is required!!

Been there - done that.