Suspension / UCA Squeak Help!

My expertise is very limited, therefore I'm looking to the all-knowing and all-powerful gods of the TW forums for a little bit of direction here.

Ive had this incredibly annoying squeak in the front end at even the slightest hint of a bump. I did some research and found that the total chaos UCA are often squeaky, and people suggested hitting the uni-balls with dry lube. so I did. Then when it didn't go away I hit the bushings with dry lube (i know people suggest greasing them but i don't have any grease/not sure how to take it apart and put it back together to grease up the bushings).

So tonight I jumped on the running boards to compare sides, the drivers side is quiet, the passengers side is SUPER squeaky and annoying. To be fair, I don't have any way to tell whether it was the passenger side the entire time, or whether the drivers side was fixed with dry lube.... but the squeak has been there throughout

video of the sound (louder in real life)
https://youtu.be/syfD8goCl2s

Ive done some research and I have seen tons of people say there UCA are squeaky and thats the way it is. But this squeak is beyond something I can live with. you can here it from blocks away, and it happens at any bump. Is there something I can do or should i take it in to get it looked at/ get the UCA taken apart and cleaned and re-greased?

EDIT - it is the uniballs, i just thought it wasn't because the squeak would come back within 24 hours

If it matters at all, heres my setup:


You're all beauties.

 

Do the bushings have grease zerks? No disassembling required if they do. I don't have TC UCAs, but mine squeaked when I first had mine installed. Greased them via a zerk a few times and it went and has stayed away after a bit.

 

Ok well looks like I gotta pick up a grease gun then. Any recommendations on type of grease to use? or is it all basically the same

 

I use Mobil 1 synthetic, the red stuff. Get a gun with a flexible hose. It'll probably take a few applications and some driving to get it worked in to quiet the squeaking down. You can also use it for your driveshaft.

 

Alright so, I greased the bushings. I couldn't get the long bolt loosened. Might just need better tools, but Im a bit worried that the anti-rust spray coating had got in there and locked it up (lots of black goop all over the bushings - you can kinda see in the pic). So I only gave it a couple squirts because i didn't want to over grease it if i couldn't loosen the bolt to let the grease out, but either way squeak is still there... gonna drive it for a few days and then maybe give it another shot of grease




EDIT - update: Pumped some more grease through the bushings, until I could see some grease squeezing out from in between the bushings. So I'm assuming its not a lack of grease thats causing the squeak. Squeak is still there .... Maybe from the coil overs or the shock?

 

Alright update ... in case anyone feels like jumping in with some opinions

After a lot of trial and error, it seems to be the uniballs in the TC UCA's, on both sides. I have some dry lube that i spray quite liberally / try to get it into the uniballs, and it seems to buy me about 24 hours of no squeak (maybe an hour or so of driving). Which is a little bit ridiculous imo. Same goes for rain / washing the truck - buys me a day of no squeaking.

Probably going to take them in to a shop and get them taken apart / cleaned / diagnosed. The balls don't look too bad or pitted, so I don't know if they need to be replaced or if its an issue of just needing to be cleaned. Either way its annoying as hell. I know a lot of people claim to get months out of their UCA's without squeaking after they lube them so i don't know whats going on with mine.

 

How many miles/years on the uni-balls? They can be replaced rather cheaply, if you are going to have them disassembled, you might as well throw in new uni-balls.

My TC UCAs have about 40k miles on the uni-balls with no squeak.

Also, is that rust on the TC arms?

 

The UCA are about 4 years old with around 45-50k on them. And ya, theres some rust on the UCA. Not super happy about that. It seems to be very surface rust though. that pic is partly mud too, this is the left front cleaned:

 

Mine are starting to squeak too. I'm going to try greasing the zurk fittings and see if that helps. I'll report back.

 

I hope for your sake thats all it needs. thats an easy fix.

So I have no idea whether or not the UCAs have stainless uniball in them or not. I have heard (though I cannot confirm) that a few years back stainless was just an option on TC UCA, and now they're all stainless? any way I can figure out what mine is? Living in the north with lots of snow and road sand (not salt here) it could be that enough sh-- has got inside the uniball that it needs to be replaced like qnyla said

 

I have heard that story about TC uni-balls not being stainless in the past unless you opted for that extra. I also have heard you need to order your replacment uni-balls directly from TC to assure stainless.

 

Any chance that my bushings are somehow messed up from the anti-rust frame treatment? I know that black gunk got all over everything, including those bushing, can still see it on there.

 

I have TC control arms and every 500/750 or so miles this really annoying squeak comes about when hitting any size bump in the road.

I've gone as far to keep a can of WD40 in the back seat. I soak down the uniball sockets, both TC bushings at the frame, both lower control bushings at the frame and the lower strut/shock mount at control arm.

Squeak goes away for another 500/750 miles......until I get time to tear it down and go through it, this is my fix for now, WD-40!!!

 

I thought you weren't supposed to use WD40 on the uniballs .... someone who actually knows should probably comment on that though

On the other hand, I would love to get 500 miles out of mine before it squeaked again

 

I don't care what others say, it works for me. WD40 is a water displacement hence the name, but does attract dirt, so I keep everything wiped clean with a towel. I'll take a pic of my setup tmrw for you. Just saying, its worth a try. Maybe next time I'll try to WD each place one at a time to centralize where the squeak is coming from. Each joint ata time until the noise goes away so I know where its coming from.

 

My TC UCAs squeak like crazy too. Best I can seem to get is about 24-36 hours out of dry lube. It's super annoying on the cobblestone streets here in Germany.

 

Do some googling on this.
Most people never service their uni's until they squeak. It really helps to stay on top of the service before they go dry. Total Chaos recommends dry teflon lube like Tri-Flow or DuPont for servicing the uniballs.
The WD-40 might give some temporary relief from already worn or pitted uni's but they should be replaced.
Wheelers Offroad carries parts and press tools and with a little patience and very few dollars, it's an easy job.
Also the bushings require silicone grease and there's a process to lube those correctly that requires loosening of the pivot bolt to allow grease penetration. I have seen pictures of bushings blown out of the arms from not doing it correctly or using the wrong grease.

 

Ya thats what I did. tried a few spots. definitely the uniballs though, hit them again last night and had a lovely squeak free morning.

Has anyone had their UCA's squeak from day 1? or is it always a wear and tear type of thing? New stainless steals with the liner and everything shipped to my door for $180 from TC ... definitely worth doing if it'll fix this problem, even if just for another 30k miles or so.

 

?

I did google it. just looking for some confirmation that this will fix the problem from people with more experience than me so I don't waste $180.