mrathell

So my 2013 GL450 has never seen snow or road salt and the underside looks like it just roll off of the assembly line. It's absolutely beautiful under there.

I don't have the front end clunk that seems to plaque some of these GL's but when I drive over a speed bump it sounds like an old 1996 Ford Bronco rust bucket from Wisconsin. Again, no clunking sound. It sounds like the very rusty suspension sound you would expect on a 1996 Ford Bronco from Wisconsin. I know because I own a 1996 Ford Bronco plow truck that is rusty as hell from top to bottom.

It sounds like rust scrapping against rust and dry rot rubber rubbing against dry rot rubber.

It doesn't make this sound during normal driving or when pulling in/out of driveways or on rough roads. I only hear it when driving over speed bumps. It rides like a dream so it doesn't seem to have bad struts from a comfort perspective.

Anyone experience this before?

mrathell

It appears no one has had this issue.

So I will start with the easy low hanging fruit by replacing the front sway bar bushings first to see if that resolve the issue. If the noise still persist I will replace out the swaybar end links. If the noise still persist after that I will most likely tap out and don't stress over it.

thunderfoot

Maybe upper/lower control arm bushing could have issues? Swaybar end links are simple to replace, might also check sway bar bushings under there too.

silvergl

A quick way to check bushings is to spray them with lube or even water and see if that changes the noise. It is not 100% certain, but an easy way to start.