92 Taurus Wagon Steering Creaks

I've inherited a 92 Taurus Wagon from my dad to use as a Lowesmobile. It runs fine; the body is in good shape, interior is excellent... all good reasons for keeping it for its intended use. The only thing that annoys me is the creaking, squeaking, and groaning in the steering at low speeds. The sound seems to be coming more out of the passenger side of the car; all in the front. Once you're at any normal cruise speed more than say 20 mph, the noise seems to disappear.

It doesn't appear to have anything to do with shock absorption. Bouncing the car up and down doesn't cause the noise. Turning the steering wheel does.

Anybody have any ideas of 1) what's wrong? and 2) how much it'll take to correct it? When push comes to shove, it's just a noise; the car steers fine... no shimmy, no slop. OTOH, it annoys me. Gentlemen?

Reply to
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
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Strut bearing

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

Is that expensive to fix?

Reply to
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

It requires removing the strut/spring combo from the car to replace the failed components, in this case the strut bearing. Any shop can do it in a hour or two, it just depends on how much the car fights them when they start pulling it apart. The cost of the parts should be under $50 per side unless they find something else that needs replacing.

Dave

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

Reply to
Dave Hammond

Hi I have the same creaking issue with my 93 Sedan for the past 2 years, is this something that one can live with or should it be fixed asap.

thanks

John

Reply to
john

Dry tie-rod ends, try holding them while somebody turns steering wheel

Lube or replace them

Reply to
johanb

Since the noise is emanating from the passengers side, I'm going to think PS pump concerns.... the pump is on this side of the car. At low speeds, the resistance to steering is high and the system needs to build more pressure. The easiest way to tell would be to listen carefully as an assistant turns the steering wheel. Check the fluid for level, colour and odor.

A top strut mount should produce any noise no matter what the speed and it wouldn't matter if the motor was running or not.

If the PS fluid is dark or has odor, you could try a flush and fill as a cheap try. I doubt that it will help but there is that one chance where it might do the trick.

Reply to
Jim Warman

John-

From my experience, strut bearing wear-out is fairly common on the Taurus/Sable line. I replaced them on my 94 Taurus at around 90k miles because they were creaking when steering at low speed (parking lots and such), the car has 160k miles on it now and it starting to do it again. I know of at least 2 other Taurus/Sable cars in my family that have 100k miles or less that are in need of them being replaced, and several others not in the family that have had this issue. I am not going to go so far as to say it should be in the top 10 on the fix list, or even really the top

20 probably, but at some point it should probably be fixed. I am not a certified mechanic or anything so take this as my opinion, but I let mine make noise for about 20k miles before finally getting sick of the noise and fixing it.

One thing I forgot to mention in a previous post on this subject is, you will need to have an alignment done after the repairs are finished.

H> Hi I have the same creaking issue with my 93 Sedan for the past 2 years,

Reply to
Dave Hammond

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