NewHilux.net

Hi all,

I have a rather loud squeak coming from the OME leaf packs.

for context these are 140,000km old and were installed as part of a pre rego GVM upgrade taking the ute up to 3150kg GVM (dont know why you would bother going through the GVM process for only an extra 150kg but thats what the previous owner has done).

I have had the ute for 10,000km and its been squeaky all that time.

Its squeaks both when light and heavy.

I have read others saying that the leafs can squeak after dirt driving but this stops after the dirt grinds down after some on road driving - I am not finding this to be the case, its squeaky all the time.

I have tried flushing with heaps of water - no change.

Hesitant to use a lubricant for fear of attracting dirt and making it worse.

Any suggestions?

You need to lubricate them and the inter leaf liners are designed with cavities to hold the grease.
The high pressure application requires a graphite grease and Penrite make a 500g tub for $10 that's readily available and works fine for me.
Best approach is to jack it up via the chassis to take the pressure off the leaves and you can prise the leaves apart with a strong screwdriver to apply with a spatula or similar. Only takes a few minutes to get around them all.

Thanks - I will give it crack this weekend

Bushwalker8 wrote:You need to lubricate them and the inter leaf liners are designed with cavities to hold the grease.
The high pressure application requires a graphite grease and Penrite make a 500g tub for $10 that's readily available and works fine for me.
Best approach is to jack it up via the chassis to take the pressure off the leaves and you can prise the leaves apart with a strong screwdriver to apply with a spatula or similar. Only takes a few minutes to get around them all.

LMM is also a high graphite grease, I think from memory it's done by Castrol. I only mention it cos I have found Penrite stuff to be kinda Exxy on occasion.

You can lube it but I'd call ARB for advice. My ranger does the same on stock springs - its so common that there is a service bulletin on the problem. The bulletin advises that you clean but dont lube.

My hilux did the same on stock springs and i got used to the noise and other noises for that matter.

I've used a silicone lubricant spray which does the trick, no sure it's the best solution. I'll also try the advised graphite grease.

The silicone didn't work for me or a number of other things I tried including expletives.
Never had an issue with the stock springs, only started with the OME and it was local ARB store that advised greasing.

OME/ARB used to provide a leaflet that explained how to maintain your springs back in the day (about 10+ years back roughly they stopped)
But yes they speak about greasing the pads regularly. Most of the pads you can grease without any tools except a grease gun and a grease nipple (say 1/4” or 6mm thread size)
Put the grease nipple into the grease gun and push and hold it firmly into the exposed hole on the bottom of the pad and pump in a few shots and this will grease the pad without jacking up the car and or prying open the leaf pack.
This will eliminate 90% of peoples squeaks but admittedly not all.
Make sure your fixed end and pivot pins are also well lubed and the bushes in good condition as these are also common squeak points. You can often “feel” the squeak if someone shakes the car while you have your hand on the pivot (common sense don’t pinch yourself of course) you feel it grinding resisting etc. goes for a lot of typical bushed joints.

Me personally I make sure my bushes are all good and I leave the rest dry due to how much dirt driving my rig does. It squeaks like crazy for a couple of weeks after a lot of rain but eventually polishes the rust out.

Finally make sure your inter leaf pads themselves are in good condition and that you haven’t lost any.
If you have 140k on the springs chances are some of them are completely worn out to the point they may be missing entirely prior to you even owning the rig if the previous owner didn’t do the maintenance. If in doubt go to an arb store they will be able to tell you if they are all there or not. These are a serviceable item and can be swapped out kinda easy. But to pay arb will be expensive as it’s labour intensive.


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Although I commented on LMM above, I'm not sure that greasing is gonna be the best solution as "Grease" of any kind will catch and hold dust / dirt particles which we know will have an abrasive affect. A mate used to work on Roller doors and they used to use some kind of Lanolin to do the slides because (apparently) it didn't hold dirt particles and thus chew up the sliders or guides.
Thinking it through, the reason for a squeak in leaf springs is excessive movement. If the leaves are shaped and packed correctly then there should NOT be excessive movement. Shaping a leaf and getting it to perfectly match the shape of the adjacent leaves is an artform. As "Myralga" mentioned, the noise is more likely from the pivot points than from between the leaves themselves.

Wrong, the leaves slide along on each other a little as the spring compresses/decompresses. That's simply how they work.

Whilst it is possible a squeak could be in the poly bushings I've personally not yet had a squeak from the poly bushings, only from the interleaf liners.

The ARB provided OME Suspension Maintenance Guide, under the Periodical & Pre Trip Suspension Checklist states:

6. If the springs squeak this usually indicates:
a. The polyurethane spring bushes are dry and require greasing.
b. The interleaf liners are dry and require greasing. Most OME leaf springs have polyurethane interleaf liners between the leaves to reduce friction and help to provide an improved ride quality, these liners can become dry and need to be greased [refer section headed Interleaf Liners - Greasing].

And there is indeed a following section describing the OME recommended greasing process for the interleaf liners.

Myralga wrote:Put the grease nipple into the grease gun and push and hold it firmly into the exposed hole on the bottom of the pad and pump in a few shots and this will grease the pad without jacking up the car

For what it's worth ARB still recommend jacking for the gease nipple.

However on my +300kg springs I can't even access 3 of the 8 liners liners on each from underneath due to the rebound clip & headlight adjustment brackets being riveted underneath at those points. Hence why I just prise and spatula and it also gives an opportunity to pull a rag through to wipe clean.