Mbodall

Let me start out by saying I already replaced my LCA bushings about 3 or 4 years ago (~40k miles ago). I used genuine Toyota OEM parts purchased through parts.com, and they were installed by Kuni Lexus in Portland. I’ve got a 2004 with sport suspension with 150k on the clock.


The sound is a relatively quiet creaking noise and can be heard from inside the car with the windows closed and no music playing. It’s similar to the ubiquitous LCA creaking sound that happens at super low speeds while navigating in parking lots, but happens under a different circumstance. It only makes the sound when cornering at medium/higher speeds and is reproducible consistently. For instance, it makes the noise when I take a 90° turn (right or left) at a traffic light at anything above about 15mph, or at lower speeds in a parking lot if I turn hard enough. The sound isn’t continuous while cornering - it creaks as I enter the corner and the suspension is loading, stops making noise while cornering, then it creaks as I straighten the wheel and the suspension unloads. The faster I go around the turn/the more G-force acting on the car the duration of the noise increases slightly, but not the volume of it. A lower speed/lower G turn will yield less than a 1/2 second of creaking as it starts to shift/flex, and a higher speed turn yields maybe almost a second of creaking. Similarly, I get the same amount of creaking exiting the turn as I do entering the turn. So clearly the duration of the sound coincides with the amount of shifting/flexing whichever bushing or component is affected. It started happening 2-3 months ago and I think it has gotten slightly more pronounced over time. The car doesn’t make the sound under any other circumstances and I have no other suspension noises and no other known issues.

weldthedif

my guess is ball joints, they tend to squeak/creak when going out.

deadguy

I have the same noises coming from my 04, and will be replacing several items this weekend. I won't necessarily know which part is causing the issues since I am replacing so much, but if it does not go away, I will know it wasn't those parts!

StanVanDam

I had some suspension-related squeaking and replaced the front and rear stabilizer bar bushings with new OEM parts, which solved those squeaks. 2002 front stabilizer bushing 48815-50180, rear 48818-50020. As far as I can tell, all 2002s have sport stabilizer bars, as these bushing #s are the only part numbers available for 2002, and in future years, these #s correspond to the sport bar (the non-sport bar in future years is 1mm less in diameter).

My final chassis squeaking is something directly connected to the engine block. Grab your block and wiggle it, maybe you have the same problem that I have.

Another squeak could be the plastic windshield cowl, there is a piece of foam that rubs against the metal body and can cause an irritating squeak. Search the forums for "squeak" to find that thread. I did not have this problem though.

bradland

+1 on the sway bar bushings, also sway bar end links.
Lexus only offers one LCA bushing but they sell 3 different bushing brackets. They are denoted by pink marking, white marking, and no marking. Not sure if these markings have anything to do with Sport Susp. or otherwise...

Lzam

Try the front and rear stabilizer bar bushings cheap parts easy install but it fixed the problem.

Mbodall

So interestingly enough, I randomly turned my head 90° to the right while going around a turn today and realized I could hear it much more in my right ear, so the sound is obviously coming from rear suspension. In the 4+ I’ve owned the car, I’ve never touched the rear suspension. I’m going to bring it in to see if they can pry against some of the rear bushings and see which one(s) flex more than they should.