Help please; Squeaky Icon UCA's

Hi there. I 'd appreciate any help you guys can offer with my situation.
About two weeks after having Icon tubular UCA's installed my truck started to squeak loudly while going over speed bumps. I took it in to 4 Wheel Parts for them to diagnose it. They lubed the zerk fittings in the UCA bushings and the squeaking went away for another week but it came right back.
So, two questions:
Is this common with Icon UCA's or for that matter all brands?
And if so, is there a preferred lube to use on the bushings that will last longer than a week?

Thanks for your advice.
Matt

 

Mine squeak. Lubing cures it for a week.

 

^- beat me to it.

My icon tubular uca's have never squeaked. I lubed the bushings up inside and out very well when installed over a year ago and just recently hit the zerks with some fresh grease. Maybe try loosening the uca bolt and jacking wheel off the ground to relieve some pressure on the bushings and then hit them with the grease gun again if you have not done that already. Might be just enough to let that grease spread better...?

Now my rear icon aal have almost always had some slight squeak. I fixed one squeak that came from the upper shock bushings touching between the mount. Now I just have a squeak that takes maintenance every other month or so that comes from the 'guide arms' on the aal that have a plastic 'bushing' on the inside. Occasionally I have to jack the truck a little and whack the aal with the guide arms (if you want to call them that) with a small hand sledge to back it off touching the springs just a tad and spray some dry lube on them. The slightest bit of movement when they are pressed against the spring pack causes a large amount of squeak sound - maybe putting rubber instead of plastic would cure that but it's not really that annoying to me anymore. Anyway, just some ideas and my experience.

 

Thanks for the replies gents. KingKoda, I'm taking it back to 4 Wheel Parts again and I'll ask that they do what you explained. Hopefully that does the trick. At least for longer than a week.

Also, my Icon AAL does the same exact thing that you detailed. I figured that it isn't as loud as the front so i was willing to let that be for now. I'll try the dry lube and see if that improves it.

 

Are you sure it's the bushings and not the uni-ball? I have had mine on for 5 years and every 6 months or so I need to hit the uni-ball with some tri-flow spray lube. Tri-flow has teflon in it I think but the squeek always goes away almost immediately. I think I may have re-greased the bushings once in the last 5 years and even then, they did not need it. I do not go off road which may be why I've been able to go so long between squeek maintenance.

 

The bushings are likely the source depending on the age and use of the truck, but another good point made. I do wipe out the grit in the upper and lower 'cup' of the uni-balls and spray with the same tri flow dry lube whenever I wash the truck in the driveway.

 

Initially I thought it was the uniball but when the squeak went away briefly after lubing the bushings I dismissed it as the culprit. I'll drop some TriFlow in there to be safe but I have caps covering them so I doubt it's them.

 

I just put some Icons on my 2015 Tacoma 4x4 with only 17 miles on it. It worked fine for about 4 days with no noise, now I get a noise that I thought was one of the sway bar bushings or control arm bushings. It's not, I lubed those up and still heard a noise when i sat in the truck or moved a foot and applied the brake.

Just read about the O-Ring on the shaft of the shock being the culprit. Many people say to spray the shaft down with motorcycle chain lube and let it tack up. I just now ran to the motorcycle shop and bought some Bel-Ray chain lubricant and sprayed them up. It may not be the UCA's that is giving you the problem, hit that shock shaft up first.

15 minutes later, no squeak, all solved.... It WAS the O-Ring on the shaft!!!!

Hope that helps.

 

lol I used chain lube too! I was looking for some other lubricant or grease and found Chain Lube and tried it. I wasn't sure how well it works or if it was good for it, but I sprayed it grabbed my bumper and pulled it up and down to work the suspension my squeaks went away!