I recently installed a set of swift springs and now i have a pretty substantial creak from the rear. This happens when braking, and going over bumps one corner at a time. The sound is only coming from the rear and sounds more prominent on the driver's side, but that may be because that's where i'm sitting. I got my wife to move up and down the driveway and brake and it's hard to tell if the passenger side is creaky as well. While doing this in the driveway, it also only creaks after braking forward. I've removed the sway bar end links to test it without and still have the creak. I've also sprayed a generous amount of silicone lube into the upper control arm and other bushings including the sway bar bushings. When i installed the springs i loosened a control arm but pre loaded it when i tightened it back up. I've done many searches here but couldn't find anything quite exactly like this situation. Any help is appreciated.

 

on mine i knew why it squeaked, i knew the rubber pieces that the spring rests on between the strut assembly was worn, i didn't want to have down time awaiting a part from honda so i just used the old one. it squeaked on the same bump every day on the way to work. inevitably (six months) the sharp edge wore itself down and went away. i also sprayed white lithium grease (left over for my other car's shortshifter install) and also did it up with some wd40 to help the metal on metal contact slide during the interim...

 

took the rear driver corner down, loosened the control arm, removed the damper assembly. I sprayed all of the bushings with silicon lube. I also took apart the damper/spring assembly and re-mounted the top hat after spraying everything with the silicon. While taking the top hat off, i noticed that the metal sleeve for the top hat bolt was noisy just from me moving it with my hand. I flipped the sleeve around and sprayed the crap out of it. I bolted everything back up and so far no more squeak. I'll let you know if it comes back in a few days, but I think the sleeve in the top hat was the culprit.