Creaking/Squeaking control arm ball joint fix

[chipman]

For those who injected grease into the ball joint boot. How many miles did you drive before the squeaking stopped? Or did it stop immediately as you started driving right after injecting the grease?

It was not immediate, it took about 15 miles before I no longer heard it from the passenger side. And a total of 25 miles before it was totally gone.

 

[brainhouston]

xmodx has the runny grease photo. I only injected grease into the ball joints.
And mine doesn't make any noise when I just turn the steering wheel. Squeaks/creaks when going over bumps.

could be your air spring/shock...

 

[Wyomingtim]

could be your air spring/shock...

Could be. I've given up. Goes into the shop Sep 18. Needs a couple of other things I've been putting off, so get it all taken care of at once. I'll drop it off in Salt Lake City, as I'm flying to Montreal for the week, pick it up when I get back. Free parking for the week!

 

[BunnySloper]

It was not immediate, it took about 15 miles before I no longer heard it from the passenger side. And a total of 25 miles before it was totally gone.

So, my creaking/squeaking finally went away completely after ~200 miles of driving.

I used the needle grease applicator with a small grease gun (holds 3oz tubes). Keep in mind, if you decide to go with a small grease gun, your local options, and even online, on the type of grease available will be limited. I ended up using STP All-Purpose grease from Autozone as those were the only ones available for same day pickup, and I didn’t want to use the cheap grease that came with the grease gun. You’ll have more options finding more specialized grease if you go with a full-size grease gun. But in the end, what I used did solve my problem. The overall cost came out to about $30 and 5 minutes of my time. I didn’t have to jack up the car or anything.

Here is how the progression went:

First drive, a couple minutes after applying the grease: 60% creaking/squeaking gone

After ~50 miles of driving: 75% of the creaking/squeaking gone

After 100 miles of driving: 90% of the creaking/squeaking gone

After 200 miles of drive: 100% of creaking/squeaking gone

It seems like my creaking/squeaking took quite a bit longer than some others to go away. This may have to do with me only using normal all-purpose grease vs. specialized heavy duty bearing/ball joint grease. But at the end of the day, it beats having to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to replace the control arms.

 

[brainhouston]

This may have to do with me only using normal all-purpose grease vs. specialized heavy duty bearing/ball joint grease.

No.
Its because u did it in place. Ball barely moves in normal driving conditions...
Me n others who took off the bolt to free up the ball joint n moved it around to the limits in all directions had the noise gone right away.

 

[islandbayy]

Just want to report back. I'm now over 45k miles since making the video and initially greasing the ball joints. I have not re-greased, and the noise has not come back.

 

[xmodx]

Approx 10-15 miles

 

[stadia]

I found this service bulletin https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10203342-9999.pdf. Apparently their "fix" didn't prevent water ingressing into the ball joint.

Noticed the squeak one day all of a sudden when turning steering.
First thought it was steering rack but it was noisy on bumps too
It was coming from left side.

Pulled the rubber boot to find this:
View attachment 958690

somehow water got in there too.
cleaned, re-greased n gave it good wiggle in all directions, all quiet now
good for short term fix but will have to replace later

This looks to be why many suspensions fail at this location n ball just pops out.

 

[stadia]

My 2017 MX with 39K miles just developed this, conveniently 1 day after my 4 year warranty expired. The service estimate is ~$1k.

Upthread there were a few people that made it seem like there was a bulletin. It would be great to find out if that's true..

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10203342-9999.pdf is the bulletin. I was told the bulletin correct was done to my X around that time. But my car started to squeak a few weeks ago. I looked at the ball joint and saw nothing about sealing.