On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 12:30:36 -0600, Chopface > wrote:

||B.B. wrote:
||> A couple of days ago my front left corner began to creak and squeak.
||> Quite a lot, actually. It's noisy both when bouncing the corner of the
||> car and when steering side-to-side, so I figure a ball joint of some
||> sort.
||> So, here's the question: is this merely noise, or is it (I'm afraid)
||> a symptom of a joint beginning to grind itself away and asking for
||> replacement?
||> '97 Honda Accord, a little over 100,000 miles on it.
||>
||
||Creaks can often come from bushings that have deteriorated. I recently
||put new dampers and springs on my '91 Civic and it is still creaky. I am
||going to replace all the bushings (many are literally rotting & falling
||apart), but its going to be a gradual process because it is a lot of
||work. I would think dry ball joints will fail pretty quickly, so check
||them for play in the near future.

If it's a Macpherson strut front-end, you may just need upper strut mounts.
These include a bearing which can fail and squeak. It's a relatively simple
replacement, although it usually requires a spring comrpessor.
Texas Parts Guy