Troubleshooting Squeaking Suspension After Firestone Air Bag Kit Install on 2016 Toyota Rav4

Published 01/16/2018

Question:

After the difficult process of installing the airbags in the rear coil springs of my 2016 Rav4 hybrid required suspension disassembly and coil removal, they seem to work well with a load on the Rav4 but they make an annoying squeaking with every motion of the rear suspension. Any hints on how to tame the noises? Lubricants etc?

asked by: Bob

Expert Reply:

Any time there's a squeaking noise after suspension components were removed and reinstalled the culprit is typically the fact that the suspension hardware wasn't torqued with a load on the suspension. So what I would recommend you do is loose the suspension with the weight of the vehicle on the suspension and then retorque the bolts with that load on it.

What happens is that when you torque the suspension components down with the frame jacked up in the air you end up repositioning some of the suspension components and things end up rubbing and squeaking. It's a pretty common problem. I had it happen once when i replaced shocks on my car.

expert reply by: Jameson C