At low temperatures ( < -5 celsius) the front suspension makes a loud creaking noise whenever I drive over speedbumps (or any other kind of bumps). After about 5 minutes of driving the problem disappears.
My garage claims that this is a normal problem for this car and there's not a lot that can be done about it. They tried lubricating some rubbers (that should be the cause) but that doesn't seem to help at all.
Is this indeed a known problem (couldn't find any mention of it with Google)? Is there a remedy? I'm still under warranty, should the garage fix it?
Actually - you should probably have a look at your strut bearing mounts and how your springs are sitting in your strut receivers. Although I expect the noise could be chronic, if you have lubed the rubber and there is no change - you should start looking around the front end a bit further a field. While a real long shot - could also be an upper engine mount getting sticky too.
... but the garage is right. It's been a "typical" problem since the NG900 came out in '94. I believe the favorite technique is to "lube everything" but my personal suspicion has always been the springs on the struts or perhaps the sway bar attachments.
I'm always on my way somewhere when it occurs and by that season (< 15F) it's always way too cold to do "optional" work so I usually just tolerate the first scrunch when I hit the local railroad tracks at .5 miles then it's gone in another mile.
Very interesting - I did not know this was a known issue back to NG900. Thx for the info.
We had our NG900 (in fact all our cars over time) annually rust treated with a local outfit called Krown here in Halifax Canada - it's a creeping oil treatment that is sprayed throughout the panels and wells. I expect it is a regular product under several brand names around the world. There is supposed to be a less expensive Walmart generic, but word is it eats good plastics off some harnesses over time - one local wag figures Walmart is using some sort of surplus Naval Jelly re-mix because it does appearently seal up open rust spots and turns them black as coal - which I guess is an upside trade to potential harness trouble.
Personally, I have always found that the local Krown shop is more than generous with application and the trade off for the annual weird haze it puts on most of the glass and instrument surfaces is the sudden lack of squeaks, loose grounds and pretty good panel perforation protection it has provided if applied regularly.
This Krown material (which seems like some sort of really light liquid wax/oil product) doesn't seem to eat the wiring harness, but does sometimes make a loose vacuum hose come away if they are running in parallel with the harness (which is correctly treated as part of the process). Great care must be taken to check house clamps and joints over the first 60 days after application - it will make a desiccated hose or rough rubber anything unreliable.
They usually toss in an extra spray can of the stuff when you get it applied and I shoot it into the wells, along the lower rockers and inner door lowers during the winter between applications here in Nova Scotia (the highest per-capita road salt user in the known universe as near as I can figure).
Anyway - as I *haven't* been getting this cold weather creaking noise since we bought it on our NG900. I wonder if the stuff is lubbing everything as it goes?
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