Spring Problem I Think

[01Y87]

Last month I had a dealer replace the fuel pump where they had to drop (or at least lower) the axle. I assume that means removing the springs? Because after the job, I have a real bad squeak from the left rear. So I got under it and everything seems tight but I hear the noise if I grab hold of the spring and shake a little. When driving, I hear this whenever I go over uneven road or the body twists at all.

According to the manual when you put springs back in the bottom pig tail spring end must be facing forward. Well, mine are facing about the 2 o'clock position in the lower spring seat. Could this be the reason for the noise? Why does it require placing it with the end of the spring facing forward? My dealer wants to squirt grease on the bushings...but I doubt that will help. There is a rubber spring seat at the top....but it never made noise before. What else could it be?

[Injuneer]

When you lower the axle, the springs fall out. Sometimes the top rubber seat comes out with the spring, sometimes it stays in the chassis. If you don't get the top of the spring in the correct spot, its not going to seat fully in the groove in the seat. Might be a combination of the spring and top seat not being in the correct orientation. That would also throw the ride height off slightly on one or both sides.

Also, might be some movement of the bottom of the spring on the bare metal perch. A small length of rubber hose slipped over the spring might help.

You could check the orientation of the spring yourself. You just jack the car up, put the chassis on stands under the rear subframes, support the rear axle assembly on a floor jack. Remove the lower shock nut and pull the shocks off the studs, then slowly lower the rear axle until there is no load on the springs. Rotate them to make sure they are correctly seated in the top seats, and facing in the direction indicated in the manual.

[01Y87]

Or maybe the shock? Now they're trying to sell me shocks. They say that by unbolting the lower nut and letting them hang full extended while they did the other job, then putting it all back, caused the shock internally to squeak.

It squeaks on the "down" stroke - in otherwords, when you push down on the back of the car - squeak - but when the body comes back up no squeak.

[01Y87]

Well I took it for a second opinion on the shocks. They invited me back under the car and said my shocks are fine. They did hear the noise, tried lubing the sway bar link, even removed the LCA and lubed both bushings, and the noise is still there. I guess i'm going to have to fight with the dealer to re-do the springs. i wish i could find someone on my own locally to help me do it myself. After all i have been thru with this car i do not trust any shop mechanic because they're not out for my best interest - they are out to produce a profit for the business. And dealers make so little money selling cars these days that I guess they have to jack it up in the shop...

[01Y87]

Final Solution

I took it to another shop, 3rd opinion, and they showed me where he could grab the shock and them it wont make the noise. So I knew I'd have to go for the shocks.

I had the dealer order OEM DeCarbon shocks, and installed, but that still did not totally solve the problem although it was better. They took it back in and at my request dropped the axle to pull out the springs, took off the track bar, sway bar, and then put everything back together and voila....no noise! Its now as quiet as new... although I really dont think I needed shocks. My gut feeling was the springs, and if they had listened to me the first time and pulled the springs maybe this could have been avoided.....

Now I'm off to the Frozen Tundra. I'm moving to Green Bay next week.