Looking for ideas as to a problem that has just shown up. My Charger has always been a great riding car, suspension has been quiet, smooth. Today, first time ever, a noise has shown up. I heard it driving and can duplicate it by bouncing the car's front end manually. The noise is on the passenger side. Sounds like something is binding, it is not a squeak but a more substantial binding noise, it is reasonably loud. (Sounds sort of like old car door hinges that are not greased). Everything was greased (ball joints, steering linkage), and I greased it all again today with no difference.

The car was restored in 2011, has a few thousand miles since. It has never done this before.

It does not make the popping noise that I have heard before when a ball joint was bad. Shocks came to mind and easy to check. Any other thoughts?

Thx

Have someone bounce the car while you listen under it to locate the noise. All we can do is guess because we can't hear the noise from here.

Worn, upper control arm bushings, worn lower control arm bushings.
Were they replaced when the car was "restored"?
Or.
The lower control arm "shaft" goes thru the crossmember.
Crossmember worn out, and out of round, causing the shaft to bounce around.

As does the strut rod, so check it's bushings as well I would also check all fasteners and do not overlook the shocks and their bushings.
Were the other suspension bushings Urethane or rubber if replaced ?

Looked at it some more.

In answer to the earlier questions...everything is rubber versus poly, yes the ball joints and other wear items were replaced as part of the resto.

I did just find something that is disturbing and I will take a closer look tomorrow. On the lower control arm, the piece in the middle that is where the torsion bar preload screw pushes against has been occasionally rubbing against the frame/body (at the very end of the piece, when the suspension travels). Theory, this could have been putting a bit of a additional load on the lower control arm shaft. Anyway, just a theory.

Tomorrow I will get it up in the air, get the wheel off, and take a better look.

Just following up. It was the passenger side shock. Rock hard movement, took a bit to sneak it out to replace it. New shocks, nice ride. I guess I hadn’t noticed that the ride had deteriorated over time.

Thanks.

At least it was an easy fix.

it's always rewarding to get something fixed, and if it's an EASY fix, that's twice as good !
finding the problem can sometimes be the toughest part.
happy for you you have it covered !

Totally agree!!!!! I had visions of total front end rebuild, had started researching the parts, read the manual and then was amazed to find the broken shock...whew!

Having said all of that, I think the torsion bars on the car were indexed to the LCA incorrectly when the car was restored, but that is for another day!!

I chased a sound that I couldn’t find for a good while. Had the wife sit in the car and turn the wheel back and forth while I looked at all the suspension parts. Still couldn’t see anything wrong! Was about to get off the ground all irritated and saw the k frame move in relation to the body! All four bolts were loose. Doh!!!!

Its always a good idea to resettle & retorque all the suspension components after awhile.