Mitsubishi Delica Owners Club UK™

[jejoenje]

I've got a strange squeak at the nearside front of my L300 that has developed over the past week or so, and I'm having trouble identifying the cause...

Basically, best I can describe it is a crunching squeak coming from the nearside front of the vehicle, usually when braking and accelerating again after braking, and somewhat when turning corners. Also speedbumps. I can't hear anything when going over a slightly rough road surfaces, or when cruising smoothly. It's been steadily getting louder over the last few days.
I can replicate it by bouncing up and down on the front step, but oddly enough only when I've turned the steering wheel hard left - wheels straight ahead or hard right, no squeak on bounce.
At first I thought it could just be the shock absorber bushes (I replaced both front shocks a few weeks ago, although the noise has only developed over the last week, really), so I loosened all bolts on the shocks (bushes and top bolts are the new ones that came with the shocks), retightened, noise still there. As an experiment, earlier I actually I swapped the new shocks between sides, noise still there and it hasn't moved with the shock absorber.

I haven't done anything to the front of the vehicle (other than put in the new shocks and tweaked the torsion bars slightly to level out ride height on both sides).

Other than that I think its suspension noise, and it sounds "rubbery" (if that makes sense?), I'm confused as to what is causing it, given the symptoms...??

Any thoughts greatly appreciated, as always.
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1992 L300 Exceed "Selma"

[Google]

[andyman]

Inner wishbone bushes? ARB bushes? You could try applying a little spray grease or hydraulic steering fluid one by one until the squeak disappears. Have you greased all the steering ball joints?
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Andy C L300 Super Exceed - over 100 smiles per gallon!

[jejoenje]

Thanks andyman... No I haven't greased the balljoints; good point... I don't actually own a grease gun! Hadn't occurred to me that it could be those... Will look into this, as well as try to spray the other bushes.
ARB ones look relatively new (they are the orange type). Can the wishbone bushes be greased effectively using just spray-on stuff, or would the wishbones have to come off?
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1992 L300 Exceed "Selma"

[andyman]

Spray grease is possibly not quite as penetrative as oils, but should  not attack rubber bushes. You need to apply a generous amount, as the dispersant quickly evaporates off. Orange bushes are probably polyeurethane, - no experience of those!  If you don't get round to greasing your nipples before the meet, I'll bring my grease gun.
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Andy C L300 Super Exceed - over 100 smiles per gallon!

[Lewis]

[jejoenje]

So it looks like Andyman's hunch may have been right on the money. On further investigation the squeaking seemed definitely associated with steering rather than (just) bumps.
Had a closer look at the NS upper ball joint and it looks as though the rubber boot had slipped off the groove its supposed to sit in?? Does that even happen??  
Anyway, clearly much of the grease had escaped so I decided to bite the bullet and get a grease gun.
Spent about half an hour first trying to slip the boot back into place. Not even sure whether that's possible without dismantling the joint, but I gave it a go anyway. I think I managed to re-seat it so that at least not all of the fresh grease just got squirted straight out of the side...
Whether it holds, we shall see, but its mostly full of grease now and the squeaking appears to have gone... Fingers crossed!
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1992 L300 Exceed "Selma"

[andyman]

Those ball joint rubbers would retain grease better if they had a wire clip around them to keep the rubber lip in the groove. I dislodged mine with over-enthusiastic use of the grease gun. If left like that, the water and grit get in.
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Andy C L300 Super Exceed - over 100 smiles per gallon!