Strange Squeaking Noise

[Roy W]

For the past few weeks I've been hearing a squeaking noise coming from the left front while making left turns only. The left front wheel bearing and left side half shaft have been replaced in the last 3-4 months. When I crawled under the truck the other day after jacking it up to check for obvious things, I noticed when the half shaft was replaced, the accordian pleats in both inner and outer boots have "caved in" sections in them, in other words the pleats do not lay the way they should. Is is possible that these compressed pleats are causing the squeaking noise, by maybe rubbing together when the wheel is turned.......I tried to pop these accordian pleats back into shape, but they won't stay. Any comments or suggestions ??

[rapidoxidationman]

Clean every grease zerk you can find on the upper and lower ball joints, inside and outside tie rod ends, idler arm and pitman arm, drive shafts, et al and fill 'em with grease 'til they're full.
Drive for a while to really spread the grease around.
Get back to us with the results.

[DmaxMaverick]

Keep it simple, at first. Misshapen CV joint boots can be noisy. If the pleats are creased and can't be corrected, they will fail quickly. Liberally sprinkle some talc (baby powder) on the CV joint boots while turning the wheel (jack/jack stands). Take it for a test drive and try to duplicate. If all is quiet, the boots need to be lubricated (dry silicone, the talc is temporary and completely harmless), repositioned, or replaced. If they continue to squeak, they will wear out quickly. The "squeak" is friction, and friction will cause the boots to fail, soon followed by the CV joint.

[Roy W]

I just got to thinking. when I tried to reform the boots into the correct accordian shape, they acted like they were under a vacuum and immediately went back to their folded up shape. What would happen if I stuck the boot with a syringe needle and then tried to reshape them. Do you think relieving them might help? Of course, take the needle out when done, and hope it wouldn't cause a grease leak.

[DmaxMaverick]

That could work, however, I'd save that as a last resort. Even if you use the smallest needle, it's still a breach in the surface. If you do, choose a location with the least amount of movement, like near a clamp The correct method would be to reclamp it, after removing a clamp, then positioning the boot while relieving the vacuum. This requires a new clamp, and the crimp tool. I suggest trying to work one of the clamped ends a bit. They are usually loose enough they can be moved.

[JohnC]

Cut the clamp on the boot where the axle enters and use a small screw driver to let some air in. Then, put a heavy cable tie on where the clamp was.

You probably got a high altitude boot... ;)

[Roy W]

I decided to do the hypodermic needle trick. I had a very small needle (could not even see hole in end of needle) and as Dmax suggested stuck it in the boot as close to the clamp as I could. It was a 3ml syringe. I had to pull the syringe off the needle each time and it took about 10-15 pumps to coax the pleats in the boot back into shape......Thanks for everyone's input.

[Roy W]

And By the way, fixing the collapsed boots eliminated the squeak.