loud creaking sound in rear!!??

[raydawg]

This has been going on for a few months now, and getting really annoying

The weird part is that it only really happens when my cars been sitting for a couple hours and its cool outside. When its warm out 80+, there isn't much noise at all if any.
the sound is a pretty loud creaking/groaning sound from the rear of the car and when its at its worst it will happen pretty constantly. every decent sized bump/divet in the road, body roll from turning, when i brake (happens once im about fully stopped). Also if i go the rear of the car and push down on it I can hear a little noise.

Only suspension mods on the rear are the sway bar and coilovers. I tried re-greasing the bushings on the sway bar but that didn't help either. but just for clarification, ij just grease the inside of the bushing where the bushing and bar actually make contact? and yea like i was saying, when its warm nothing...when its cold my car is freaking sound effect machine. any ideas??

[ryanastyG4]

that happened once when i re installed my rear springs and assembled it wrong...the rubber pieces

[ryanastyG4]

nvm foeget my post...overread the coilover part

[Tech_Greek]

Either your coil overs aren't in the mounts properly or are torqued wrong somehow - OR - your bushings need to be completley taken out and relubed - Lithium Grease is the only way to go I believe from what I was told by RRE.

My car will creek (NOT LOUD AT ALL, barely noticable) when my springs compress going out of my driveway as the mounts are dried up and needed to be conditioned but I only heard it one day looking for a tranny noise so I haven't bothered with it.

I have polyurethane bushings all around and it never squeaks, but I also have black ones, red ones need lube a LOT.

[raydawg]

well ive had the coilovers on for almost 2 years now and this just started in the past couple months, so i dont think it has anything to do with the installation.
and tech, when you mentioned the bushings were you refering to the sway bar bushings or on the coilovers? and yea i dont think i used lithium grease, just so generic automotive grease that comes in the little tubs for a few bucks lol. ill get some lithium and re-grease the sway bar.

*edit*
after reading wikipedia about what lithium grease actually is....its very possible that could be the problem especially when it comes to why i hear the noise so much more when its cold.

[psy-q]

what kind of coilovers?

[raydawg]

TEIN's

[raydawg]

well i switched to white lithium grease on the sway bar mounts but no luck...still got the noise. so im now wondering if its an over-tightening issue. basically on the mount bolts i crank away as hard as i could by hand....i figured being suspension they needed to be tight. how tight are those bolts supposed to be?

[psy-q]

I don't think it has to be super tight, just enough that they don't back off. Those clamps are really only there to stop the bar from bouncing back and forth off the frame. Structurally they don't really do much.

[raydawg]

yea never really thought about it that way. maybe they are so tight that the bar can't properly flex like it needs to so its putting some stress on the surrounding frame/components....ill loosen them a bit and see what happens

[raydawg]

ok i have some new developments that might she some light on a possible focus area. Ive noticed for a while now that I have a very noise E-brake. I mean i pull the E-brake and let go of normal brake and my car will roll back slightly and make a loud creaking noise. Today I did a test that when im parked with E-brake and rock back and forth I get that creakin noise....but i take off the E-brake and no noise at all??

then the other night (like a complete idiot) i forgot to engage the E-Brake when my car was in the driveway. and the next morning is was pretty cool and typical conditions for my car to be a dumb ass.....but I had no noise whatsoever!!??

I never put 1 and 2 together about the e-brake so i didn't mention it....but a professional driver was driving my car on the track and did an ebrake slide at the end and thinking about it now this issue has been ever since.

so now im focusing on the problem not being suspension or sway bar....but something with the ebrake and where it engages at on the car. not sure what the coldness factor would have to do with this, but its an step in a new direction. maybe the ebrake is putting unnecessary stress on something when engaged which is causing it to make noise, especially when its cold. any ideas on this???

[psy-q]

Sounds like he stretched out your parking brake cable so the rear brakes aren't holding correctly. Just ask Mitsubishi to adjust it next time your in. Piece of cake.