Squeaking leaf spring bushings

[buck91]

Talking about the rear of my '11 F150. Specifically, the rear leaf spring bushings of the rear leaf springs; they appear to be a revoloving shackle design. I have isolated the noise to this location as it goes away if I spray them down with a hose. Spray lube doesn't help at all and once the water dries it comes back. The truck sees yearly fluid film applications so I have tried power washing the spring packs with little improvement. Degreasing the rear bushings solved the problem for half a day and when it did return was less pronounced.

Given this info, I guess my plan is to mix up some 50/50 simple green and water and just scrub the [censored] out of the rear bushings. If a second washing fails then would there be any reason to try remove/clean/reinstall or should I just move on to new bushings? I wonder if a poly bushing would be an improvement? With a heavy greasing before install and yearly fluid film maybe it would stay lubed enough to be quiet?

 

[Canadastang]

If you thought those bushings were loud, wait till you hear poly bushings!

I'm going through the exact same thing with our 2014 f-150. Embarassing to have a $30k++ truck squeaking and groaning over bumps.

It's being traded on another truck that's on order, so I'm not really motivated to wait at the dealer for it to be repaired.

I think the only thing you can do is replace the bushings or leaf spring (always replace springs in pairs).

 

[BigD1]

At least it's behind you, and not in the front from control arm bushings squeaking. The squeaking sound is annoying.

 

[Dyusik]

After installing upper control arms in the jeep,the poly bushing made enough noise to drown out the engine. A little bit of grease solved that permanently.

 

[buck91]

I run some poly on my Mustang. It can squeak badly but I keep a grease gun loaded with superlube and hit the zerks every couple thousand miles. I understand what I'm in for there! If I gotta put up with squeaking might as well have a reason. Right?

 

[Merkava_4]

Maybe install some grease zirks into the leaf springs and shoot some grease around the bushings.

 

[abycat]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Maybe install some grease zirks into the leaf springs and shoot some grease around the bushings.

or a set of upgraded bushings. But one or the other is about it.