Question for Honda (Accord) mechanics.

[pbm]

My 6th generation (2001) Accord 4 cylinder has begun to squeek and groan from the front end. It started a few months ago and has now gotten very loud (and annoying). I know it is (most likely) bushing related and I was wondering if anybody has experience with this as it is hard to isolate the problem. It doesn't help that there is snow everywhere and hard to get a good look/hear at the problem.
The Honda forum doesn't mention any known problem areas so I was wondering if any of you have any ideas. The car has 106K and the struts and bushings are original. Thanks.

 

[The_Jeff]

The cold doesn't help, that's for sure. Makes rubber squeaky and hard. Probably control arm or sway bar. If it's all over the road, control arms. If it's not all over the road you might want to wait through frost heave/ pothole season so you're not trashing new parts.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

May be dry ball joints - those are really noisy when dry. This has SLA not struts, correct? A REAL front suspension.

 

[pbm]

Eljefino: It's not 'all over the road' and I had planned to wait until Spring but the noise is getting very annoying.

Arco: It does have front struts and Honda's upper control arm set-up.
I'll see if I can get grease into the ball joints. Thanks

 

[UberxG]

check your radius rod bushings that connect from the lower control arm to the from frame , below the radiator

 

[pbm]

When it warms up a bit, I'm going to try and isolate which (of the many) bushings it is, by spraying them individually with silicone. I'm trying to avoid changing a bunch of them since I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep the car. Thanks guys.

 

[bustednutz]

Mt fathers 2000 civic has the same issue but in the rear. Its a fairly common problem and is usually bushing related. On a honda board awhile back I recall reading about using PB Blaster on the bushings. Do one bushing at a time and see if the noise goes away. If after a couple days it still squeeks, move on to another. The PB is supposed to shut it right up, but only temporarily. But the idea is to locate exactly which one is noisy. Then you can replace from there.