My 95 850T Wagon has had a creaky suspension for the past year or more. Left front seems the worst, creaks when pulling out in the morning when cold, and clunks when hitting bumps at speed. The shocks are fine all around, the rebound good when pushing down on the bumpers as a test. I think basically the strut mount bushings and spring seats are probably worn out all around as the car has 115K on it. Seems like it is quite an expensive fix to refresh the suspension with new bushings, spring seat cups, and struts all around, so my question is, how much would it run to do it all? Should I bother since the struts seem OK and just live with the creaks? I think I had seen a front end suspension replacement kit on ebay for $475 or so, but that is not for the rear also, and how many hours am I looking at paying a shop to install it? I've also seen people on this board write that they have replaced spring seat cups and they failed again a short time later (30K miles or so). I like the car, just not sure if I want to dump alot of money into it to get rid of creaks. Just spent close to $500 for a complete brake job last week, so throwing $1000 at the suspension may not be an option right now.

Thanx for any advice.

Keith

I had the creaky suspension a while ago and was jjust about ready to dump the money into the car for essentially all new bushings, parts, struts, etcc... when someone suggested the swaybar end links. I replaced them first. $30 and an hour in the driveway and I was clunk-free. Good luck with the strut mount.. Hopefully it works.

Mechanic says the problem is the strut mount, going to change it out Tuesday and see if it fixes the problem. Hopefully it will, $35 parts, $70 labor, $65 alignment.

Sway bar bushings are known to creak quite a bit. A little grease here is the only part of the suspension that I know of that can be lubricated (i.e. cheapest attempt to fix a squeak).

Why not try first to isolate the noise more specifically and make just the needed repairs? If it's a steering stop or stabilizer link you can live with it a while. If it's a loose ball joint or strut upper mount, you're looking at a major accident. My 95 850 at 120K miles has gone through a couple of stabilizer links, 1 ball joint, and a couple of rear shock upper mounts. Total expenditure was not much. It does not ride like a big Lincoln but then it never did from new.