When I'm going over a speed hump (the longer, smoother less harsh ones compared to speed bumps), I'm getting a metallic-ish creaking noise when the suspension droops after hitting leading edge of the hump and getting ready to 'land'. The noise basically happens as the suspension hits some downtravel state.

I thought it was my swaybar hitting the rad support and grinding, which I knew it has been contact as I saw marks. Pulled skid, put a few washers on the support and bolted it back - clearance looks good now. Went for a test-ride and no noise. Great!

Bolt the skid back on and go to run an errand and the noise is back. Back to the garage - tightened all skid bolts including the skids I didn't remove. Some were a little loose. Still makes noise.

Alright, screw it. I'm due to grease the UCAs anyway. Loosened the through-bolts, greased. Greased the upper ball joint for the UCA as well. Done.

She still makes the noise. It's def a creaky/rubbing kinda noise and sort of sounds metallic, but I could be wrong. Although I will say that the noise seems to be LESS now after UCA greasing, so it's possible that the grease in the UCA bushings needs some time (suspension cycles) to work its way around the full bushing. Maybe that's why the noise seems to be less prominent.

Final theory is that the washer I added on the lower rad support wasn't enough to fully clearance the swaybar when it's moving. In this case, it will self-correct with time. There really isn't that much overlap on contact.


Here's where I'm stumped.

It seems that there's correlation with the skid being off and no noise. There is also correlation of the noise happening when suspension is at lower droop. I don't hear this noise around town unless I'm hitting a speed hump. I DO hear this noise when wheeling up an incline with suspension movement. I do NOT hear it AS MUCH when going down hill on the trail. So it seems that suspension state matters.

If ya'll think I missed a point to check, please let me know.

Setup:
King 2.5, Icon UCAs