Loud front end creak

Had that same issue with me 5100s. Took me forever to figure it out. Ended up just buying a new setup and when I pulled them off you could see how messed up the bushings were.

 

One of my lower front shock bolts bent and created a horrible squeak noise. @Superdave1.0 will confirm.

 

I haven’t seen where the OP mentioned having lower shock bushings or not. My shocks do not have lower shock bushings just spherical bearings and misalignment tabs

 

My driver side front frame to body mount was making a noise. Found the bushing was off center to the body and was making a binding squeek. Used a reamer to allign the offset holes replaced the bushing and rubber and no noise.
This was on a brand new truck.

 

3rd for radiator support body mount bushings. Go with the energy suspension kit. It's worth a shot, super common. You can't tell if they are bad, until you remove them.

 

the energy suspension kit is not recommended. most of the people with cracked rad mounts were using those bushings (the theory is they are too stiff). keep it OEM. you definitely don't want to be dealing with torn sheet metal

 

The rad support will tear regardless with heavy off road use. The key is using the smaller bushing of the two between the frame/rad support.

 

I also read somewhere that the ES frame/rad support bushings aren't as hard as the rest of their product lineup for this very reason. My full ES frame bushing kit has not caused any issues. Granted, I'm 1st gen and therefor practically indestructible, but still

 

Lets see how complicated we can make this. How many miles are on this thing?

 

2023 TRD Pro. 3k miles. Had to replace the radiator support bushings. Horrendous creak as the driver side failed. The metal sleeve was rubbing on metal. It was sometimes intermittent depending if it was wet. But then it was all the time. I did a little write up on it on my build page but here’s a couple pics of the failed bushing and replaced with energy suspensions

 

Same just replaced my bushings last week i have a 21 with 20k on the clock had a tear on the drivers bushing easy fix. Im not a hardcore wheeler and wont be putting in a heavier battery so i will take my chances the poly mounts hopefully keep my radiator support sheet metal from cracking

 

part out

 

i have 6112s for almost a year now, started getting a noise last year sometime. I haven't figured out what it is yet but happens when i reverse out of my drive way or when I'm turning in or angling in. It's usually under load when it makes the noise on the front driver side. I wonder if this is the issue. I bought new strut mount because it looked cracked and stuff. Haven't had a chance to install it yet. lol

 

December 19, 2022 - YouTube

Does it sound like that at all? Thats when mine was really bad and was doing it ALL the time. It used to be just when it compressed a good chunk, such as angling in and going over big speed bumps. I was able to replicate the noise by standing on my sliders and really rocking the truck hard as seen in the video.

 

On my old 2nd gen I had a bunch of stuff done at a transmission shop including new/used trdor suspension and oem lower control arms. I had similar noises... I took it to the alignment shop and the guy told me they must have torqued the lower control arm cam bolts when the suspension was at droop, thus binding up the bushings. They aligned, set it on the ground and did the final torquing and the noise went completely away. It sounded similar to yours, but i dont know for sure.

 

Nice. I've had that same exact creaking on my 16 since the second year of ownership. Chased every bushing, bearing, mount and cross member bolt with no luck and basically just accepted that this is how the truck will be forever. Fingers crossed it's the radiator support bushings and it'll finally be quiet on the front end...

 

UCA and/or LCA ball joint(s) is my guess

 

My mid skid makes this noise after doing water crossings in the Arkansas Ozarks. I think the water removes any fluid film I have between the skids and replaces it with sediment (or whatever the blueish-green is).

 

Check the tie rods (inner and outer) and check to see if the rack and pinon boots for leaks on the inner tie rod for wetness.

 

Mine might actually be the trd skid plate. I removed it yesterday and drove around and turned in my driveway didnt hear the noise anymore. I also have the rci trans skid mated to it. I bought some washers and see if that would help. So far i didnt hear the noise doing the same things that would make the noise.