GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have noticed the last couple days when I am driving slow or say doing a 3 point turn or what ever, I get a creaking sound from the front end somewhere. Sounds like something needs greasing ?? Anyone know what that might be and if I could fix it myself ?

You need to determine what it is first.. get someone to turn the wheel while you stick your head here n there.. Could be any number of things.. I'm not 100% if you can service the ball joints or not, I would assume so.. same for tie rod ends.. look around for Zerk fittings (grease fitting)

I'll see what I can do tomorrow.I was wondering if there were any grease ports under the car ?

Hmm, went through my repair manual and didn't find anything on chassis lubrication.. nothing.. You could try the turn test with the car on the ground and on a jack to see if there is a difference..

Is your Vibe lowered? if so, check your front strut top hat nuts. and also make sure the struts themselves are tightly secured to the strut towers. My 04 Vibe developed a noise in the front end on turns which went away after I tighened all that down.

Yes it is lowered! I will check that when I get off work.You mean the 3 nuts on the strut tower, the ones you see when you open the hood ? What should they be torqued to ?

Quote, originally posted by Sull »Yes it is lowered! I will check that when I get off work.You mean the 3 nuts on the strut tower, the ones you see when you open the hood ? What should they be torqued to ? Not sure the torque specs but I tightened mine as much as I could by hand. Also remove the center rubber cap in the middle of the strut to expose the strut top nut and make sure thats tight.But yes, I ment the three nuts you see on each tower. it may not be your fix but I know it solved mine.

Vibe doesn't have any grease zerks, at least most of them don't... only reason I could think of one that would be if something was replaced with a aftermarket one that does...I can tell you with confidence mine does not (06 Vibe Base)

could also be your end link has gone bad.

Oh really. What is that exactly ?? Hopefully it's just loose strut nuts ....................................................

they look like these but longer.They connect from the strut to the sway bar

Also check your wheel lug nuts. I've had some loosen before and they created a creaking sound while driving, scary to think. That happened a few years ago. I just happened to notice the same sound again this past weekend. It then occurred to me it might be the lug nuts, so I pulled over to check them out. Turns out a stud is missing, broken off! This same thing happened a year ago. I'll be replacing another stud this week.

Also have your CV Joints looked at besides what else has been mentioned. Check the boots and make sure they are not cut open. If so, the joint is already gone.

Quote, originally posted by JustinVGT »Also check your wheel lug nuts. I've had some loosen before and they created a creaking sound while driving, scary to think. That happened a few years ago. I just happened to notice the same sound again this past weekend. It then occurred to me it might be the lug nuts, so I pulled over to check them out. Turns out a stud is missing, broken off! This same thing happened a year ago. I'll be replacing another stud this week.Ditto... That is if you haven't... Do you torque your lugs? If not you should as well...Any of the things mentioned could be the issue, there are a lot of highly stressed moving pivot points.. lol.. add to it things that could be moving that shouldn't and it gets messy.. lol.. How much can you do on your own? Do you have a jack and jack-stands? that's a good place to start... If you get through the on the ground inspection, it might point you to something... Then you might want to put it up in jack stands and pull both front wheels, once you are on jack stands, you can use the jack to "load" each corner to see if you can reproduce something... Start with the easy and work toward the difficult..

OK thanks for all the advice. My nets has been down so I have not replied back. I will try some more stuff tonight and see what I come up with..Be in touch guys...

Before I went away for the weekend I re checked the strut mounts and also checked the wheels were torqued! Yes they are!I guess at this point I can jack the car when I get home Monday later in the day, I do have a jack and jack stands. Still I am very limited to what I can do, but I guess figuring out what is wrong would be the first part.All in all the car will probably have to go in arggg...