UCA bushing question

[eelliiss]

First time lift installer here. I put on Radflo 2.5's all the way around with JBA uca's a few weeks ago, and I started getting some creaking immediately. Got under the vehicle, made sure everything was torqued to spec, added a shot of grease into the JBAs, and I was still getting the creaking.

Fast forward to some searching on the forums, I read that in a UCA How-to thread that the uca bushing bolt should not be torqued until the weight of the vehicle is on the suspension. Unfortunately, this is not the process I followed. Yesterday, I loosened the bolt, lifted each tire off the ground and lowered a couple of times. From there, I torqued at factory spec once the the 4R was back on the ground.

Although the creak is seemingly less audible (placebo effect?), it is still there. I'm not 100% certain that the creaking is due to the bushings, but I've narrowed it down to that. I probably drove 1k miles with the improper preload on the UCA bushings. What are the chances they are already toast due to my first installation method? What could I be missing if it is something else?

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[RedSled]

Did you loosen the bolts before you greased them?

 

[eelliiss]

Did you loosen the bolts before you greased them?

Not sure if I'm clear on your question. I greased the ball joint as JBA's have zerks there for easy maintenance. I greased the ball joint after I lowered the vehicle back down and torqued the uca through bolt to spec. They do not have zerks on the bushings since they utilize stock rubber bushings.

 

[Jetboy]

It's possible that the squeak is from somewhere else. It's unusual to get a squeak from the rubber style bushings. They are not designed to slip, the rubber flexes. That's why OEMs use it. Rubber doesn't squeak very often.

I had a bad squeak from my front end that was from my shock bushing. My guess in this case - because JBA are rubber bushings - is that it's your shocks, not control arms. I also possibly had noise from my front coilover being out of rotation at the lower misalignment. If the bottom of the shock body where the eyelet is gets rotated too far it can contact the lower control arm mounting tabs. Aluminum on steel can be very creaky too.

The best way to diagnose is to get yourself a cheap stethoscope and a buddy to bounce the vehicle.

 

[Engineer]

I would suspect the bushing before the ball joint but the rubber bushings make that much less likely - look elsewhere (not the UCAs).

Did you lift the 4runner at all or do you have it set to factory height? JBA only seems to sell arms with a rubber bushing designed for stock height. The higher caster arms are both Poly bushings.

It seems you either are running Radflos with out a lift (possible) or you bought new control arms without the benefit of extra caster built in which would seem to defeat the purpose.

Edit: JBA website is not up-to-date, see post below

 

[Jetboy]

I would suspect the bushing before the ball joint but the rubber bushings make that much less likely - look elsewhere (not the UCAs).

Did you lift the 4runner at all or do you have it set to factory height? JBA only seems to sell arms with a rubber bushing designed for stock height. The higher caster arms are both Poly bushings.

It seems you either are running Radflos with out a lift (possible) or you bought new control arms without the benefit of extra caster built in which would seem to defeat the purpose.

I think their pictures are out of date. The high caster arms are rubber bushing too. And they all come with the updated ball joint. The pictures still show the old style. Mine are rubber - and high caster.

 

[Engineer]

I think their pictures are out of date. The high caster arms are rubber bushing too. And they all come with the updated ball joint. The pictures still show the old style. Mine are rubber - and high caster.

10-4, they need to update their descriptions as well! Thanks for the correction

 

[eelliiss]

I would suspect the bushing before the ball joint but the rubber bushings make that much less likely - look elsewhere (not the UCAs).

Did you lift the 4runner at all or do you have it set to factory height? JBA only seems to sell arms with a rubber bushing designed for stock height. The higher caster arms are both Poly bushings.

It seems you either are running Radflos with out a lift (possible) or you bought new control arms without the benefit of extra caster built in which would seem to defeat the purpose.

All their uca's come with rubber bushings. Caster at 4, lift is ~2.5".

I'll continue to snoop around for the source of the noise.

Any other ideas? I'm sure at least a few people have been in this similar situation.

 

[eelliiss]

Maybe the thread title should be changed to mysterious squeaking/creaking?

 

[samwhich]

Did you fully torque the bottom strut bolts when in the air as well? Those may be also bound up, not sure if that would cause squeaking, but just a heads up.

Finger tighten those when in the air, then put it on the ground to finalize the torque after the bushings rotate into place.

 

[eelliiss]

Did you fully torque the bottom strut bolts when in the air as well? Those may be also bound up, not sure if that would cause squeaking, but just a heads up.

Finger tighten those when in the air, then put it on the ground to finalize the torque after the bushings rotate into place.

I did fully torque them while things where in the air. Great suggestion. Will try this as well.

 

[nb rob]

Radflos have spherical bearings top and bottom, with misalignment spacers, not bushings that would deform

what exactly causes the creaking? ie: turning the wheel, flex while turning the wheel....?

 

[eelliiss]

Radflos have spherical bearings top and bottom, with misalignment spacers, not bushings that would deform

what exactly causes the creaking? ie: turning the wheel, flex while turning the wheel....?

I was actually thinking this, too -- that the heim joints would just move into place with no binding when tightening down the bolts.

The creaking is most audible at low speeds, ie. going 10 mph in the school parking lot while picking my son up, going to a slow crawl and then complete stop, small bumps. Probably a couple of other scenarios that are escaping me at the moment.

 

[alphabeast]

I have JBA UCA's and one thing I did during the install was coat the bolt that runs through the bushings with anti-sieze. Mine have been quiet from day 1.

 

[CF_Machete]

Check the shock stem nut and washer on top of your strut mount. I found out the hard way that the bushings and washers from bilstein 6112s are no compatible with kyb strut mounts.

I still need to cut the nuts off of the stem to inspect the washers, but I'm pretty sure the bilstein washers deformed due to an improper fit and allowed a gap to form. I initially thought the nut had backed off on the stem, but that was not the case.

I figured this out after regressing my Caberg UCA's 3 times. Check for play in your top washers and possibly spray wd-40 on them to see if the squeaking stops.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1txY5uZNNonU0CO61G0RFhWdyx_rWKbh2/view?usp=sharing

 

[eelliiss]

Check the shock stem nut and washer on top of your strut mount. I found out the hard way that the bushings and washers from bilstein 6112s are no compatible with kyb strut mounts.

I still need to cut the nuts off of the stem to inspect the washers, but I'm pretty sure the bilstein washers deformed due to an improper fit and allowed a gap to form. I initially thought the nut had backed off on the stem, but that was not the case.

I figured this out after regressing my Caberg UCA's 3 times. Check for play in your top washers and possibly spray wd-40 on them to see if the squeaking stops.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1txY5uZNNonU0CO61G0RFhWdyx_rWKbh2/view?usp=sharing

Appreciate the feedback, but this wouldn't be applicable in my case. Radflos don't have the center top nut like Bilsteins.

 

[CF_Machete]

Appreciate the feedback, but this wouldn't be applicable in my case. Radflos don't have the center top nut like Bilsteins.

Did you check the 3 strut mount bolts

 

[eelliiss]

Did you check the 3 strut mount bolts

Yes, all snug.

 

[Antman]

First time lift installer here. I put on Radflo 2.5's all the way around with JBA uca's a few weeks ago, and I started getting some creaking immediately. Got under the vehicle, made sure everything was torqued to spec, added a shot of grease into the JBAs, and I was still getting the creaking.

Fast forward to some searching on the forums, I read that in a UCA How-to thread that the uca bushing bolt should not be torqued until the weight of the vehicle is on the suspension. Unfortunately, this is not the process I followed. Yesterday, I loosened the bolt, lifted each tire off the ground and lowered a couple of times. From there, I torqued at factory spec once the the 4R was back on the ground.

Although the creak is seemingly less audible (placebo effect?), it is still there. I'm not 100% certain that the creaking is due to the bushings, but I've narrowed it down to that. I probably drove 1k miles with the improper preload on the UCA bushings. What are the chances they are already toast due to my first installation method? What could I be missing if it is something else?

Any help greatly appreciated.

After the lift you got an alignment right? The LCA bolts are probably not tight enough- they MUST be at 129 ft lb. If they were torqued to any less than that they will creak loudly any time you come to a complete stop or go over a large bump.

If you can turn the nut by hand with a socket and a short wrench they aren't tight enough. Take it back to the alignment shop and have them check- if they are loose make sure you get them to re-align it because it will be off.

This exact thing happened to me.

 

[garface]

I've been dealing with the exact same thing. Installed my Kings w/ Total Chaos UCAs and it was squeaking a day later. I know that polyurethane bushings and uniballs make more noise by nature but I'd like to see what I can do to make it as quiet as possible. And "race truck suspension makes race truck noises." Whatever, I'll try whatever I can.
Loosening the long UCA bolt under the weight of the truck and pumping more grease in the zerks definitely helped the most so far. I crawl around under the truck a few days every week to see if I can spot anything rubbing but no luck. And it's been aligned 3 times since the install so if a LCA bolt was loose I think we would have found it by now.
Couple other things I would check: if sway bar was relocated, check to make sure it is not hitting the radiator brackets under your front skid plate. Also make sure sway bar links look good. I also saw a horror story of someones shock body hitting the inside of their coils. Not likely but worth a look.
My next step is having someone swing by so they can bounce the truck up and down while I listen. Hopefully my pelfreybilt sliders will be ready soon to aid with the bouncing.
Best of luck and keep us (me) updated!