Squeak towards back of Tahoe while driving (not shocks)

[Matthew Jeschke]

I'm trying to figure out what is squeaking. I have a 2001 Z71 Tahoe AWD version.


I've disassembled the rear suspension, inspected and reconditioned all the bushings, spring mounts, installed new shocks, and new sway bar links. I also pulled off the driveshaft, cleaned and greased the Universal joint.

Part of my squeak was bad shocks. However, a squeak still persists after installing new parts. I'm wondering if there's a common squeak in the interior somewhere. I have the mid-row bench seat... Does that tend to develop a squeak?

Or is there other areas to check. The noise is definitely coming from behind the front row seats towards the back of the Tahoe.

Thanks for the help I'm pretty **** retentive about having this just perfect lol

 

[iamdub]

Crawl around the back with a mechanic's stethoscope and poke around while someone drives. If it does it on short and sharp bumps such as when hitting the reflectors in the middle of the road, this will be convenient. You may not even need the stethoscope if it's an interior squeak. Sit on either side of the second row bench and see if that stops it. Apply pressure to the various plastic trims, door panels, the doors themselves (don't forget the rear hatch), third row seats if you have them (or take them out), etc.

Isolating it to inside or outside would be a huge step. I found a squeak in my S10 that sounded like it was in the dash behind the gauge cluster to be from a heat shield under the cab floor rubbing the transmission bell housing. Using my stethoscope to listen to the trans tunnel with the carpet pulled back pinpointed this. The dealership had it for three days and gave up.

 

[Doubeleive]

could be anything really like Chris said your going to have to either have someone sit in the back and try to find it or have someone drive and you find it, my 00 2nd row bench used to get a little squeak

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Ah super idea. I need to get a mechanic's stethescope and have somebosy else drive. Thanks a million as silly as it sounds i had not thought of that.

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[iamdub]

Ah super idea. I need to get a mechanic's stethescope and have somebosy else drive. Thanks a million as silly as it sounds i had not thought of that.

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Sometimes we get so caught up trying to "superdiagnose" that we skip the fundamentals.

On that S10 that had the squeak "behind the gauge cluster", I actually removed the entire dash- gauge cluster, radio, A/C ducts... everything, and drove around only to find the squeak was still there. It got to that point before I broke down and let a shop look at it and even they gave up.

I'm not a total idiot, though. I actually wanted to pull the dash to have it dyed black, just not right at that time. I drove for about two years with no dash.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

haha, you're just like me. I'll probably drive my truck for the rest of my life before I get it pieced back together. Sometimes I find this stuff is more fun taken apart then put back together.

 

[swathdiver]

I'm trying to figure out what is squeaking.

I've disassembled the rear suspension, inspected and reconditioned all the bushings, spring mounts, installed new shocks, and new sway bar links. I also pulled off the driveshaft, cleaned and greased the Universal joint.

Did you use any new bushings not made from rubber? Those poly ones squeak. Did you check the body mounts?

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Did you use any new bushings not made from rubber? Those poly ones squeak. Did you check the body mounts?

I reused the old, original rubber bushings. Crazy as it sounds. I took the control arms and pan hard bar off.

I inspected all of them visually and they looked great... I then cleaned them first with dawn dish soap to get the dirt and grease off. Then I wiped them completely clean with denatured alcohol as so no soap residue. Lastly, I applied two coats of ATP 205 Reseal ensuring each coat soaked in.

Afterwards I installed on car, ensuring proper suspension pre-load and torque specs on fasteners. It's amazing how many legit looking tutorials online fail to ensure proper pre-loading and completely ignore torque specs.

Keeping true to my **** retentive nature I used a laser measure to go from each rear shock mount to each front lower ball joint and ensure the distances were equal directly and cross the chassis. Separate post lol

Additionally, I installed two new Bilstein 5100 series shocks in back to match the new 5100 series in the front.

All done, I got under the truck and pulled on everything shook it etc. I then jumped up and down on bumper exercising suspension. I could hear no squeaks outside the truck.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

I got the mechanic's stethoscope. I couldn't find a single thing with the interior that was at issue. I am thinking perhaps it's the rear universal joint. My guess is it's completely dried up w/ little or no grease. Unfortunately, I don't have one with a grease zerk. Curious what Universal joint to you recommend?

 

[iamdub]

I'm a fan of Dana/Spicer U-joints. I don't know if it's an option for our rigs (probably so), but you may be able to get a greasable joint versus the OEM sealed design.

When exactly does it squeak?

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

I'm a fan of Dana/Spicer U-joints. I don't know if it's an option for our rigs (probably so), but you may be able to get a greasable joint versus the OEM sealed design.

When exactly does it squeak?

It squeeks worse when under load and on a bit of bumpy rd. If i let off gas the squeeking mostly stops a bit.

These is a spicer one w/ grease zerk. However I was hoping for heavy duty rated one.

I see moog makes a heavy duty rated ujoint but it has a micro zerk requires a grease pen to lube. Which i dont like.

Probably though heavy duty doesnt mean much is just for marketing purposes? Spicer has a heavy duty called for life, however i cannot find that with a grease zerk or in size for tahoe.

Prob i just order regular greaseable spicer ujoint.

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[Matthew Jeschke]

I got the u joints off. I am curious though does the universal joint need installed in a special orientation due to the grease zurk? I cannot see to find anything that mentions an orientation.

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[iamdub]

I got the u joints off. I am curious though does the universal joint need installed in a special orientation due to the grease zurk? I cannot see to find anything that mentions an orientation.

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Just needs to be oriented where you can get the grease gun tip on it.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Thanks iamdub. I got the front ujoint in (waiting on second ujoint to come from amazon for back). I have a practice of cleaning things every time I take them apart. I managed to clean off the orientation marks in the process though I'd marked the orientation of transmission input shaft with drive shaft. Now I have 50% chance of having got it in original orientation. Curious though does that even matter?

 

[Erickk120]

Thanks iamdub. I got the front ujoint in (waiting on second ujoint to come from amazon for back). I have a practice of cleaning things every time I take them apart. I managed to clean off the orientation marks in the process though I'd marked the orientation of transmission input shaft with drive shaft. Now I have 50% chance of having got it in original orientation. Curious though does that even matter?

You'll probably be fine as long as there aren't any weights in the section that connects to the transfer case, if thats the one you meant. How hard was it to remove the OE ones, I still have the OE ones with over 225k and have been thinking about it. Just make sure you put the driveshaft and pinion yoke in the same orientation or you will probably end up with vibrations at higher speeds, or at least I did.

 

[iamdub]

I wouldn't sweat it since you're replacing both U-joints. Driveshaft orientation only matters on vehicles with multiple shafts because they're balanced as a unit or if you're reinstalling a shaft with the same U-joints it had when it came out. You want the U-joints to be in their original positions since they've worn together.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

I wouldn't sweat it since you're replacing both U-joints. Driveshaft orientation only matters on vehicles with multiple shafts because they're balanced as a unit or if you're reinstalling a shaft with the same U-joints it had when it came out. You want the U-joints to be in their original positions since they've worn together.

Awesome thanks. That makes since that they are independent of each other unless two driveshaft sections.

I think I was looking at the original ujoints witb 230k miles on them. They looked fine although a bit low on grease and grease was dirty. Was amazed they were in the condition they were though. There was zero slop in them too.

With luck though that was ny noise. Will know saturday when second joint arrives.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Complete annnnnndddddd


Was a complete waste. The squeek is elsewhere. Also i wouldnt recommend greaseable ujoints. No matter how much grease i pumped in there, rhere always seemed to be one joint that didnt get grease. Ug...

And if you still want greaseable, spicer doesnt fit. You cannot access the grease zerk. You have to get the moog with grease zerk on cap.

Otherwise moog and spicer joints look identical.

I can say i know more about installing ujoints now that i ever cared to in the past lol


Onto next item, this squeek is driving me nutz

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[Erickk120]

Have you tried moving/rocking the truck up an down?See if you can locate it that way. There is a lot of bushings in our trucks.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Erikk120 Great pointer... Yes I had a friend go under the truck as I jumped on the rear bumper. I also got under the truck and pushed it up and down with my legs. I found the shocks were squeaky doing that. Good excuse to upgrade to 5100 bilsteins

I too thought could have been the bushings. I looked at replacing however, felt they would be easy enough to inspect. So I took off all the rear control arms and pan hard bar. All bushings were cleaned with dish soap, then denatured alcohol so as to be perfectly clean. After I treated them with AT 205 reseal (awesome product) and let set for a day so that could soak in. They were very carefully inspected for stress marks on the bushings and nothing was found. Lastly I applied high temp brake grease to the shafts the bolts go through... and properly pre-loaded the bushings w/ suspension loaded and truck level. I did the same with reconditioning the spring seats and shocks. (awesome technique for anything plastic or rubber on your vehicles).

I actually may have inadvertently discovered something when I changed out my perfectly fine u-joints... I had to use the truck for what I bought it for this weekend after completing the u-joints. That is going on forest roads through the snow and mud. D&mn fun I might add. I got back onto the pavement and realized my squeak was COMPLETELY gone.

The squeak slowly came back after driving another ten minutes or so on pavement. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what that might have been. Then I realized, the transmission yoke...

My guess right now is when the driveshaft was pressed in it distributed some of that grease to the splines in the yoke, stopping my squeak. However, after driving a little ways, the squeak came back because the grease worked it's way out of the yoke.

I had packed the transmission yoke with grease when I put the driveshaft back on.
I am thinking the yoke may not be well lubricated. I was also surprised when pulling the yoke off that no transmission fluid came out at all. Shouldn't the yoke get some transmission fluid or grease? When I rebuilt my Camaro Trany fluid came out after pulling off the driveshaft. So was surprised nothing came out here.

Any thoughts?