Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Rear end squeak - Help!

Need help.

I have a '97 Con GL/4cyl/5 Speed/88k. Problem free car until recently. I hear a annoying squeaking sound each time a turn or drive over uneven road. I greased the strut sping ends, but that didn't help. I now plan to greasing the rear whishbones in hope this will resolve the issue. Thing is, I cannot find where this squeak is coming from. No, I don't have mice living in my car, but I'm beginning to question if this squeak is coming from somewhere else in the back of the vehicle.

Has anyone else experienced this issue??

Any info will be helpful!

It sounds quite a bit like your sway bar is squeaking. Especially since you are saying that it does it when you would be using the bar.

This is what you should look for:


Loosen the sway bar brackets, pop the old bushings off, grease them and reinstall. That is located on the front side of the rear subframe. The gas tank hides some of the bar.

Here are a couple of places to look for them. One is the back seat hooks. The hooks that hold the front of the lower seat cushion slide around and make a noise that is hard to locate. I wrapped duct tape around the hook and pushed it back in, that shut it up.
Another is the heat shields along the exhaust system. The quick nuts work loose causing the shields to rattle and squeak.

I've been battleing this same problem.
Took it in to the Ford dealership since its still under warranty when it first started happening. They were set on the struts needed to be replaced. They offered to order me some new ones under warranty but told them to wait because I had my BAT struts coming in. Replaced struts, still squeaks.

Took it back to them and they said it had to be the sway bar bushings. They ordered some for me, replaced my old ones...still squeaks. Made no difference what-so-ever.

The next step, they pulling the gas tank on Tuesday because they think its a baffle thats causing it.

2x95se: thanks for the suggestion on checking the back seat hooks. I'll get them to check that on Tuesday.

-neal

I've got the same problem - only I notice it just when I pull in my drive. (On an incline).

What should I do?

Eurythmian

I have the same problem as you, and I found what is causing the noise.
It is the plastic liners in the rear quarter panels.
Reach up under the rear quarter panels and tap on the plastic liners.

exactly! They found that to be the culprit today when I took it in. Ahhhh, my car is so quiet now...I love it. Now I dont have to ride with the radio blarin so I dont hear the squeaks!

-neal

Guys, How can these squeak.. ? does the car really twist that much ???? !!! That is so sad.. I thought we had rigid structures.

Actually I do have my liners off now, and I am interested in knowing how you guys managed to quiet them down. I had them off to place some sound proofing behind them. As part of my never ending sound proofing efforts.. Could it be the thin glass after all ?

My squeak turned out to be the emergency brake cable rubbing on the chassis or suspension component.

oh yeh, I had forgotten bout that one. That was the first thing they did to fix it. Didn't help much. But that is another thing to check for...

-neal