Sport's front suspension noise & changing grease

[redraif]

So I videoed my horrendous front end noise coming from the 2001 montero sport xls 4x4 3.0l auto. It did not do this one bit last week.

2001 Montero Sport XLS 3.0L front suspension noise: http://youtu.be/4B-EaLaiBhw

It seems to have occured after I washed all the clay off the undercarriage, frame, suspension & a-arms.

Is there a chance the mud was covering up the squeaks or limiting travel? Did washing out the mud wash out grease from the suspension?

Where should I look? What part would cause this noise.

On a side note.... I think I want to swap my grease over to synthetic anyway. Where are all my grease points. Zerks fittings can sometimes be missed. Where all should I look? What's the best way to flush out the old grease to replace it? Just force in the new and it will flush out the old?

 

[Jay Ayala]

Hey redraif, Matco Tools has this cool microphone set up that allows you to pinpoint noises coming from strange places. I first saw it on an episode of Power Nation's Truck Tech. Its called the Wireless Chassis Ear. I've been wanting to buy one but can't seem to justify it.

This tool in particular is kind of expensive and may not be worth it to simply diagnose something like that, so I would suggest that you should grease it all with white lithium.

 

[JordanM/S]

I have almost exactly the same noise coming from the front suspension components. I took it in and the mechanics at my shop told me it was the upper control arm bushings going out. I plan on replacing the upper control arms myself this summer, hopefully that will fix my squeaking noise.

 

[redraif]

Yipes I think i read with control arms it's a full replacement of the whole component, not just the bushings?

 

[redraif]

Took some pics of the suspension while I was painting the Wheels... Did notice the outer tierod boot on the drivers side is cracked. Does this mean just replace the boot or am I looking at the entire tierod due to wear? Is there A check to see if ineranl bearing damage has osccured?

Here are the front sway bar bushings....

So is this outer front sway barbushing supposed to be this loose?

Rear endlink bushings? Cracking... replace?

 

[JordanM/S]

No idea, I assume so. Mine all look exactly the same almost. especially my rear end link bushings

 

[TheMole]

Nice vid you can really hear the squeaking. Sounds like it could rubber bushing related. Are the shocks good? Does it make the sound if you manually press down on that corner? Maybe try some of this stuff from the following Scotty Kilmer vid. I get some random squeaks and clunks so I'm gonna give it a try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wSVr4I5PLE