[Beav]

Had a few moments this afternoon to fiddle with the car. Some time ago I had torqued the suspension bolts to spec (imagine that - me using a torque wrench on my own car!), but with only minor success. As I began thinking about it I realized that the length of the bolts going through the cradle and control arm bushings are fairly long. What has happened is because of their length, time and vibration has allowed them to stretch, loosen and create small wear marks where the bushing ends sit. Torquing them may have worked years ago when the marks were smaller, but today the marks are larger and the bushing ends probably aren't going to be sitting in the best spot for factory torque specs to work properly.

So, grabbing my trusty impact wrench, I wailed on the bolts and could see as they tightened they had some torsional give to them. Now some flexing is normal, but my experience is that the twist was a tad over the top. Anyway, using my trigger-finger torque measuring device, the bolts are now very tight and all noises are gone. Not that the car was ever a rattle-trap, it just wasn't as quiet as it should have been. Now if I replace the two rear strut mounts it should be dead silent.

For those that like to DIY, be careful if you go to over-tighten the bolts. It takes an experienced touch to know when to quit before breaking a bolt and I've broken my share in the past. If you break one of these bolts it will really, really suck to replace it.