Noise in front end

[CANADIANCADDY]

Recently I have been hearing a hollow rattling noice coming from the front end (from one side I think) when I go over very slight bumps ------ I do not hear anything when I go over larger bumps.

Took it to the shop today and told the mechanic that I thought it might be stabilizer links or bushings. He put it on the lift and said everything looked OK. He did say there was a little play in the links but could not be sure if it was enough to cause my problem. He suggests I do nothing for the moment but the rattling (now that I am always waiting to hear it!) is driving me crazy.

Any thoughts on what I might do?

[adallak]

I have some ratling in front end too. Control arm's bushings are not good, but the real noise maker is a piece of plastic shield/cover. Because of an oil dropping on it its shape changed and now it touches part of conrol arm. When I drive over bumps i hear very loud rattling noise with plastic accent. Not sure this is your case but who knows, check it out.

[tkjr]

I have the same noise coming from the right front of my car and was advised that it was stab bushings. Had it checked out at 2 places and neither found anything wrong. Maybe we should just replace them anyway.

[rek]

I had a noise when I went over small bumps. I looked at the stabilizer links, grabbed them, tried to move them, to see if they were tight. They looked OK and felt tight. I changed them, none the less. ONE end, of one of the links, was SHOT. The other "Good" ends, held the assembley tight, except for going over bumps. I changed the rubber bushings (holds the stabilizer bar to the frame rails) as well. It's quiet now. The noise could be strut related, as in the strut bearing (I think that's what it's called). The links don't last forever. I've seen them go at 44K miles.

[DocFey]

Had a rattling and clunk in my 96 STS. Finally jacked it up the other day for a look. The bottom of one of the stabilizer links on the rear had blown out and was hitting the stud on the bottom. Nice aluminum alloy--$75 +tax at the dealer plus had to order so got it delivered to my front door for $51 with shipping from gmpartsonline.com.

[sammi]

The bushings will fool you! My mechanic told me I was throwing my money away by replacing the stab bushings "they were fine" he said, but he would do it anyway. That solved my problem. BTW caddy dealer said the problem was the struts! Nice guys huh.

[dankhts]

Had/have a similar problem with my '96 STS. I was experiencing a rattle, consistant with bumps felt on the road, sounded like it was comming from the right side, near the top of the suspension components. Sevearl garages and front end shops checked everything out - stabilizer links, all bushings, etc, and no one could find the problem. Eventually, I found that if you remove the little plastic cover from the top of the strut tower, under the hood, and put your finger on top of the bolt/nut assembly of the top of the strut, and get a couple of big guys to help bouce the car up and down on the suspension, you can fell and hear the noise at the top of the struts. Turned out that my origional struts were shot, and low on oil, as some had been leaking out. I had the strut tower bushings replaced as well as installing new struts from Arnott. The car drove beautifully for a day, no noise or rattles. The next day, the rattling started again, and got worse each day for the next couple. I took it back to the alignment shop, and they found that all the oil had leaked out of he new struts!! Arnott sent me another pair under warranty, I had them installed, and after about 500 miles, the rattling over the stutter bumps and speed bumps is starting to come back again! I have a bad feeling that these struts are also defective! Maybe I should just give up and go to the Caddy dealer and get the propoer parts and be done with it. The origional factory struts that I replaced didn't rattle as much as these!!

[The_Raven]

Howyadoin,

Sounds like stabilizer links, very similar to what I experienced... see this thread for more information and a service bulletin.

[CANADIANCADDY]

Hats off to Bbobynski!

Took your advice and just went for it. After my local mechanic couldn't figure it out I dropped into a well known suspension shop who although were not sure that the rattling was from the bushings or links replaced same at my insistance. At first I felt a little sick when after removing the old parts they claimed that it appeared as if they were in good condition and not likely the cause of my rattle. Having said this after they put in the new parts and also did a long overdue alignment I hit the road to find that all was quiet and that the car handled great. Sometimes I guess we should take a leap of faith even when repairs to our prized Caddys are concerned eh!

PS I felt so good that on the way home I came up against a Olds 442 at a stop light and egged em on for a mini run only to find the STS was a little too fast for one of my dreamcars of yesteryear.