Squeaking and clunking noise from front passenger wheel area

[ciaka]

<bitching>So after my recent move to California (SV Bay area), I am happy to report that their roads are some of the crappiest roads I have ever driven on.

Way worse than some of the trenches you experience up North after a good freezing winter.

Their city repair crews must surely be blind the way they repair the roads

</bitching>

 

Recently, I have noticed (and seems to get aggravated with colder temperatures too), that in the passenger front wheel area, I can hear squeaking when going over sharp bumps.  Sometimes, when the bumps are sudden, I can also hear some kind of clunking.

 

Have looked through some forums and get advice/see info about lower control arms replace, etc.

Wanted to see what you fine folks on here can advise me on this.

 

I inspected the wheel by lifting off the ground and trying to jiggle it sideways (holding tire at 3pm and 9pm to try move toward either direction).  I also tried to hold at 12 and 6pm, trying to move tire towards either of those points.

 

There was no movement in either direction.

 

 

Greatly appreciate your input in trying to get this quantified and ultimately resolved.

[TWalk]

hi, I experienced this with my 04ctt.  On mine it was the upper control arm and the engine mount strut brace. (the little arm you see on the right side of the engine compartment) On mine, the innards (bushing) was stripped out.  hope this helps. 

[SithPitt]

Well as I've seen through forums people explain a lot, but no visual aid...

 

I had same issues like you, but they got worse.

 

I took my Cayenne Turbo to PepBoys and they replaced the bushings on the lower arm marked in red [17, 18]. These were completely broken. Also inspect the front bushing marked in green [19]. Noise gone, but couple of months later faint noise was noticed and replace the whole upper arms [both sides] marked with the big green circle...

 

 

 

Begin with those items, due to low costs [bushings I recall were like $15.00 each. Upper arms were like $50.00 each]... I don't want to scare you, but don't let this issue for a long time unattended. Due to this simple issue, later on, the passenger's strut was internally broken. It cost me $1,600.00 each strut plus $400.00 in mechanical labor...

 

Hope this could help you a bit better...

 

Whatever happen, please reply so other members in the future could read the final result / conclusion... Just a suggestion...

 

Good luck!

[ekstroemtj]

Well as I've seen through forums people explain a lot, but no visual aid...

I had same issues like you, but they got worse.

I took my Cayenne Turbo to PepBoys and they replaced the bushings on the lower arm marked in red [17, 18]. These were completely broken. Also inspect the front bushing marked in green [19].

Good luck!

Great write up. Thank you.

I was just going to order this job at my local porsche service point.

They wrote me that they need or remove the entire strut. Cant believe

[hahnmgh63]

I've heard on the Cayenne that the upper bushing go before the lowers, that is true for Audi's too. I have a new set of uppers to install on my '06 CTTS with 75K but it's not clunking yet but probably not too far in the future. Funny that CA has the highest Gasoline tax in the nation and your right, some of the worst roads. Even the highway seem to use a courser rock in their mix which adds to road noise.

[ekstroemtj]

Can you confirm that for replacing this part its neccessary to remove all air Suspension system?

[ekstroemtj]

I found a write up on rennlist. Unfortunately the air struts need to be removed for doing this job.

http://rennlist.com/forums/porsche-cayenne-forum/725237-upper-control-arm-removal.html

[SithPitt]

Sorry for not replying earlier... But according to most Porsche Mechanics, the struts needs to be removed. I did mine without removing it, but many people will not agree with what I did... :lightbulb: I made perforations straight to the bolts through the fender. I had to remove the air filters to do that... But again... I did it because I love to do things by myself... The Cayenne is mine :cheers:  and I decided to made the holes through the fender... In a future if I have to replace them again, will be a truly piece of cake to do so...

[liam_b]

I agree that what you did works BUT it's like one of those hillbilly "I fix'd it!" repairs. If I paid someone to fix my car and they did it that I'd be apoplectic and incandescent!

Removing the "strut" (coilover in UK) first is the proper way to do this. The TRW (OE maker) upper arms are £50/$80'ish, fit perfectly and you almost certainly won't need an alignment afterwards, especially if you use a Sharpie to outline the coilover retaining bolts and centre them back during refitting.

Edited April 22, 2015 by liam_b

[SithPitt]

I agree that what you did works BUT it's like one of those hillbilly "I fix'd it!" repairs. If I paid someone to fix my car and they did it that I'd be apoplectic and incandescent!

Removing the "strut" (coilover in UK) first is the proper way to do this. The TRW (OE maker) upper arms are £50/$80'ish, fit perfectly and you almost certainly won't need an alignment afterwards, especially if you use a Sharpie to outline the coilover retaining bolts and centre them back during refitting.

Let me clarify you something in case that you can't understand simple and plain English. I work and do things for myself and like I said and let me quote myself because you can't read, I said: "But according to most Porsche Mechanics, the struts needs to be removed. I did mine without removing it, but many people will not agree with what I did...". Also like I said the SUV is mine and I do as I'm pleased. It's not Hillbilly. I like to simplify my tasks. That's what an Engineer do. Straight to the point, the smart and easiest way. If you don't like it, I simply don't care :censored:. I posted what I did just to let people know that there's a lot of ways to perform a job...

 

Everybody wants to take it to a Porsche dealer, fine. Everyone has the right to decide what's best for their own interest....

 

I hope Ciaka, could share his experience and many others here like I did. Providing real alternatives and solutions. The world need people to share ideas, not people to suppress them...

[liam_b]

obviously further discussion of this with you would be futile. I leave the comments below for others to consider before attempting this type of repair procedure

 

—

 

the Cayenne front coilover/strut unit applies a force of approximately 1/4 of the cars weight to the top mounting (due to newton’s 3rd law), circa 1300 lbs under static conditions, under dynamic conditions i.e. striking a pot hole edge at speed and especially anything where the wheels leave the surface and return with a thump, this force could be significantly higher, thats when apparently rigid parts can bend. most of the unibody is fabricated from pressing grade lowish carbon steels with UTSs potentially 400-600N/mm with yield at anywhere from 40-80%, generally steels are assumed to have infinite fatigue life with cycled forces being well under the yield point and of course there will definitely be some factor of safety margin in a vehicle structure design but things change with corrosion, ageing, damage etc so at the very least it is decidedly unwise to cut holes (whatever method) to access the upper arm mounting bolts this way.

[ciaka]

Just to revisit and close on this topic, I found it too hard to replace upper control arms without removing the shock.  If you look at one of my DIYs for this, you will see in pics that the two bolts holding the upper control arm to the shock, are in such proximity to the body of the car inside wheel well, that it would be too hard to access these bolts to remove.  I had to remove the shock which was not difficult at all.

 

As to the squeaking and clunking noises from the shock, my fix was:

- replacing upper control mount with new one (bushings new

- removing shock and replacing the upper shock bushing (inside the shock).

The squeaking and clunking was coming from these components (clunking likely from upper shock mount, squeaking from old bushings in upper control mount).

Once these were replaced, ride became less jarring (much smoother), and noises were no longer observed.

Case closed.

[lewisweller]

On 2017-5-9 at 8:20 AM, ciaka said:

Just to revisit and close on this topic, I found it too hard to replace upper control arms without removing the shock.  If you look at one of my DIYs for this, you will see in pics that the two bolts holding the upper control arm to the shock, are in such proximity to the body of the car inside wheel well, that it would be too hard to access these bolts to remove.  I had to remove the shock which was not difficult at all.

 

As to the squeaking and clunking noises from the shock, my fix was:

- replacing upper control mount with new one (bushings new

- removing shock and replacing the upper shock bushing (inside the shock).

The squeaking and clunking was coming from these components (clunking likely from upper shock mount, squeaking from old bushings in upper control mount).

Once these were replaced, ride became less jarring (much smoother), and noises were no longer observed.

Case closed.

Yep these two mounts left and right for the front struts is on my list to do before sell, I already have the parts. Also new top arm of left side (right side is done already a while ago). 

With worn mounts the suspension is crashing and over humps and pot holes it creaks and crack with a not too nice knock for good measure on harsh speed humps. 

Edited May 11, 2017 by lewisweller