Creaking noise coming from right rear

[nytebyte]

Was driving down the highway yesterday and all of a sudden, I notice a loud creaking / popping noise coming from the right rear of the car. It just appeared all of a sudden out of nowhere. It seemed to make the noise more often when I made lateral movements, like changing lanes or going around curves.

When I got home, I jacked up the right rear of the car and it made the creak noise with every pump of the jack and sounded more like “pop, pop pop.” It sounds like something is binding up and then letting go. I pulled off the wheel and inspected everything that I could see. I crawled under the car and looked at all the suspension components and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I’m thinking it might be bushing somewhere, but it’s odd that it happened all of a sudden without warning.

Any idea what it might be or where I should look? I don’t really have the necessary tools or knowledge to dig into the rear suspension too much and I might have to bring it somewhere.

Click to read more...

 

[nytebyte]

This morning for some reason, the noise is mysteriously gone.

Today is the first time driving the car since I jacked it up.

The only thing I did while I had the car jacked up was to fix the parking brake cable clamp. Back when I changed the rear brakes a few years ago, the screw head on little bracket that holds the parking brake cable to the lower arm of the suspension broke. Trying to drill it out was futile, so I just clamped it to the arm.

Well I noticed that the clamp broke, so I put a new one on. I don't see how that could've done anything though.

What do you guys think?

 

[Wiked03]

Long ago, I had a similar noise coming from somewhere in the IRS. It would happen randomly, but mostly when turning and not under load. I never did trace it down, but when I swaped to solid the noise was gone.

There were lots of theories including halfshaft issues, body panels rubbing/binding, something in the diff, etc... but we never found it.

 

[nytebyte]

There were lots of theories including halfshaft issues, body panels rubbing/binding, something in the diff, etc... but we never found it.

Uh oh. This does not bode well for my future.

 

[SNAKE IZ]

Rear-End Popping

I had that problem in 2005 and Packey Webb found it to be excessive spatter (weld) on the sway-bar link if you clean the weld off the connection the sway-bar will move freely instead of binding up

 

[nytebyte]

I had that problem in 2005 and Packey Webb found it to be excessive spatter (weld) on the sway-bar link if you clean the weld off the connection the sway-bar will move freely instead of binding up

Did your problem occur all of a sudden after years of no issues?

Did they just grind down the weld?

Also, I've noticed that it doesn't seem to make the noise until I drive around for a while and things heat up.

 

[Aron]

Do you have any poly bushings back there? If so perhaps they need a little grease

 

[SNAKE IZ]

popping rear-end

my car made the noise turning right on incline. I dont know about the warming up as it would do it anytime. They did grind down the weld and ever since it hasnt made the sound again. The car had 3000 miles then and now has 13000 so it seems to be the fix.

 

[nytebyte]

Never touched the bushings, so they're still stock.
I did recently inject grease into the two fittings back there, but I have done this every two years, along with the front ones when I do an oil change in spring.

Now while driving, it sounds like something clunking around back there. The noise is inconsistent and doesn't seem to get worse when going over bumps, like you'd expect. This is a frustrating problem to track down.

 

[nytebyte]

Update:

I brought it to the dealer (they have a very good shop with good people) and it's the sway bar bushings.

They need to order replacements direct from Ford.

The tech sounded pretty convinced this was the issue. Makes sense based on how the noise was manifesting itself.