2020 Gladiator - Front Suspension Noise

[Elijah Williams]

Hi All, I know that this has been asked several times, but I wanted to see if anyone had any updates to tracking down the front suspension noise that seems to plague the Gladiators. I have read every forum here and had little success.


I have thrown parts at everything and chased down what are known issues, and still cannot find where this "click and popping" noise is coming from.

It will do it when I go over a bump, sometimes when I turn the wheel, hit a transition in the road surface, etc. Sometimes the rattle sound is so bad that you would think this thing was 50 years old and loose as a goose. However, I have checked the torque and grease on everything every single month without success.

Hopefully someone here has found the silver bullet.

Current Set Up:
21K miles - 99% Highway
4" Rubicon Express lift
Upgraded Control Arms
Fox Shocks and Flow Through steering stabilizer
Heavy duty Teraflex track bar
Teraflex Ball Joints
Upgraded Tie Rods and tie rod bar
New Wheel Bearing Assemblies
Upgraded cast iron Steering Box
Synergy Steering box stabilizer
35x12.5R18 - Firestone Destination X/T

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[keithcroshaw]

I'm getting a clicking clunking sound when coming to a stop and starting when it's warm out.
All factory Sport S.
Dealer said leaking shocks but I just picked it up in August new.
They're on order, so we'll see if that fixes my issue.

Good luck.

 

[Arisdocjk]

Do you have a video of the noise?

 

[tysongladiator]

To be honest, it could be anything from something simple as a loose nut on the fender flare to a balljoint. Like someone else mentioned, you might have to provide a video or something for more help.

I had a loose disconnect bolt once and a loose inner fender liner bolt once.

 

[Elijah Williams]

Hey Y'all, I think I might have pin pointed the noise to the sway bar. Part of it is that the bushings did not have enough grease, so I pulled them off and lubed them and wraped some Teflon tape to where the bushings were mounted for added help to keep the resistance. This stopped all the squeak and squawking.

The other part is the sway bar itself.

I noticed that the sway bar has “stops” in the left and right side that limit the movement of the bar. I pushed it back and forth, and I found that there was some play in the tolerance, and the sway bar would move just enough to hit the bushing. I put a 4x4 under one wheel, and sure enough, the saw bar hit the housing on that side. Replicated it on the other side with the same result.

I believe that the sway bar is moving left to right when you go over a bump of undulation, based on the flex of the front end, and causing the sway bar to move and slam up against the brackets causing the noise.

 

[Elijah Williams]

I'm getting a clicking clunking sound when coming to a stop and starting when it's warm out.
All factory Sport S.
Dealer said leaking shocks but I just picked it up in August new.
They're on order, so we'll see if that fixes my issue.

Good luck.

Did the new shocks make a difference?

 

[keithcroshaw]

It did!
No more noise!

 

[Elijah Williams]

It did!
No more noise!

What did you go with? I think I might try that too.

 

[keithcroshaw]

Dealer replaced them under warranty.

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