So, I had a 1.75" leveling kit and 33's put on almost 2 weeks ago. Drove it for several days and it drove great. Even took it on a 4 hour road trip to head on vacation. We are up in the Great Smoky Mountains playing in the National Park all week. Trout fishing, playing in the rivers, hiking, and driving the Jeep all over the Park. All was well until 2 days ago. I went down a dirt road out of the National Park. Nothing difficult at all. Truly a scenic, bumpy dirt road through the mountains. As soon as I got off the dirt road, I had a horrible creaking coming from the rear end. And when I say creaking, I mean like a covered wagon rolling down the trail. It's constant and can only be described as a creaking or squeaking sound. It'd definitely coming from the suspension in the right rear. It creaks when I turn left, right, speed up, slow down, go over any bump. It's constant. I tried to spray white lithium grease on all the contact points, and it did nothing. Sound gets much worse after going down a dirt road and getting the underside muddy. Strangely, it almost goes completely away if I pressure wash the underside and get all the dirt out... until the water dries out. 30 minutes later, it's back to creaking again. No idea where it's coming from. It has to be upper bushing on shock, or the spring. I've had my wife jumping up and down on the right step bar while I was under it to the point she wants to murder me. But, I'm almost certain it's coming from the spring. I don't know how a dirt road caused it, but it's there and obnoxious as hell. I'll take it back into the shop that installed it as soon as I get home in a few days. I was hoping I could locate and fix it up here, but it hasn't happened. Any idea what it might be?

 

The shock comes out easily, a 5 minute test to see if that's it.

 

Usually something like this can be replicated by putting your hands on the rear quarter panel and shaking the crap out of the rear end back and forth. It doesn't take much effort at all to get that rocking. I've had creaking/squeaking before that I swore was a shock. Then I swore it was the body mount. Turned out it was the sway bar bushings. Lubed those up real good and viola! Might have a friend or family member help so you can be underneath listening for the source.

 

Thanks. I've done that. Like I said, my wife has jumped up and down on the right side step while I was underneath it. I can't quite find the exact spot, because I'm on vacation and I have outside noise to deal with around me. So, it's harder to zone in on one particular sound. I know they will fix it when I get home. I, just, for the life of me, can't figure out how a dirt road can cause that much noise right after a leveling kit was put on. I know people go off-road with leveling kits all the time, so they can't have these issues regularly. If they do, this thing will be coming off and I'll be putting a Teraflex 2.5" lift kit on this week. My OCD can't handle sounds like that. It drives me crazy.

The part that confuses me most is that I can make it go away with high pressure water for 30 minutes or so, but spraying grease everywhere did nothing. So, it has to be something water can get into and act as a lubricant to quiet it until it dries.

 

Take a torque wrench and re-torque everything control arms,shocks, swaybar links, track bar etc

 

Did you loosen a the control arm and track bar bolts and re tour them after you installed the lift? IF not there will be some bind there. Check the torque on your body mounts.

 

Well, turns out it was apparently bolts that came with the leveling kit at the tops of the springs. The guy at the shop today said that's what was rubbing and they were slightly hitting the body, causing the creaking. He put a few washers in to back them away from the bottom of the body and said it went away immediately. I drove it this afternoon quite a bit, and couldn't hear a thing. Makes sense, I guess, because I sprayed white lithium grease on everything I could get it on underneath. And the grease didn't even change the sound, much less get rid of it. I guess when I sprayed water up there, it provided just enough lubrication to get rid of the sound until it dried, and then it came back. I wonder if, with the new shocks, they settled after a little use, just slightly, and that's what allowed the bolt to hit after a week or so of complete quiet? Either way, I think it's fixed. Shocks me that's what it was, but I'm happy that sound is gone. It was horrible.

 

That's an unusual level kit then. Usually the pieces that go on top of the springs are just poly spacers. It's odd that they'd be bolted in at all.

 

Agree with Karl. I'm glad the sound is gone, but things aren't adding up in regard to the fix. Any chance you could tell us what leveling kit this was so we could see out of curiosity? These spacers are just held in place by tension from the springs. No clue what bolt could be touching the tub.

 

I am guessing there was something lost in the translation between shop and op. Perhaps he meant upper shock mounts.