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Hello all, so I got this squeaking on my 2000 Civic EX coming from the front Driver wheel area when I go over bumps, turn, or get in and out of the car. It's stopped for now and I'm trying to get it to do it again to find out where it's coming from but it stopped completely. I checked the lower and upper ball joints and they don't seem to have any cracked rubber... Also, on the passenger side, the tire is wearing badly on the edges, on the driver side, the tire is worn on the inside edge only. I was told the tire on the passenger side only had 10 pounds of pressure in it. And I've been told that I probably need shocks in the front cause they are the originals (as far as I know) and I have 220,xxx miles on it. So could a bad shock cause the squeak or is it another part I should be looking out for? Thanks!

 
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Ball joint boots that are not torn or cracked does not mean that the BJ is fine.
Sounds as if your alignment is out, either due to damaged or worn suspension components.
You need a front suspension overhaul which could and will probably include ball joints (upper and lower), shocks and springs, maybe tie rods and possibly also front suspension bushings. After all is doe of course a 4 wheel alignment is a must. If you want to fix it properly, be prepared to spend a bit of money.
If you can install the (quality) parts yourself, you will save a bit . If not, be prepared to cough it up.

 
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I had the alignment re-checked since I just got it done back in May. They said it wasn't off too badly and just suggested maybe some new struts. They didn't say anything else but I imagined they checked things out...

 
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They are struts actually. Easy to check, go push down on each corner if it bounces then time for new ones. Listen for a squeak at the same time.


LOL, couldn't help myself

I'm not a suspension expert and neither are the guys you took it to. Take it somewhere else. This guy sounds like he knows more about what's wrong with your car than they did.......\/\/\/\/\/

If you are very careful you can support the front of the car on jackstands and wiggle the tire vertically and horizontally if there's too much play it's ???? balljoints or tierods ??? (like I said I'm not an expert)

 
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As I said before, so many times, front end squeeks which you think are struts or bushings turns out to be ball joints.
The lower ones tend to pull this trick often.
Also, the shop should not be telling you that the the alignment is off slightly with the tire issues etc. that you are describing. Either something on the car is damaged or worn out. With what you described, they should be able to look for and correctly diagnose the problem, either a bent lower control arm, damaged knuckle from hitting a curb etc. etc. Worn lower control arm bushings can cause inner tire wear as you are experiencing as the arm tends to allow the wheel assembly to deflect out (neg. camber) at the bottom.
A decent shop/ tech with start with the list of possible problems and eliminate each one.
This should not be very difficult to deal with.
I would hightail (but drive slowly) it out of there and seek another shop/ opinion / solution instead.
You did not say if you are mech. inclined and would want to attempt to replace any of the parts yourself.

 
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I'm going to agree and say probably ball joints. I've heard the sound before. Just stick a bar between the lower arm and knuckle and wiggle the bar around, if you notice any play at all you know your BJ is toast. There should be 0 up/down play.

Here is an EXTREME case. You don't want to get here believe me:
[autostream]http://autostream.com/ibcivicforums/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=1374& transactionid=1359819227-1732383344&posted_by=_www.civicforums.com&youtube_ video_id=tqw85L_sMgE[/autostream]

If that's not it you can start looking into other areas like shocks.

 
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The squeaking thing started happening to me about a week ago. It went from just occasionally to pretty much constantly over the course of a week. I had actually done a full suspension inspection last week to make sure tie rods ends, ball joints, ect were OK....and they were. So I didn't really care about the occasional squeak too much...hey my cars 15 years old it's bound to make some noises.

When it became constant over the past couple days it really drove me crazy. So long story short all I ended up having to do to fix it was lubricate my lower arm bushings. It actually points that out right in the FSM. If you don't jerk around at it like I did it probably only takes about an hour or 2 to get it done. A breaker bar is handy for the inside bolts as well.

 
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thanks for the info