Possible Clues:

• Like noisy floorboards
• Run-down
• Decrepit
• Groaning backmarkers coming in look weary after swimming race
• Tending to squeak; badly made (colloq.)
• Like a dilapidated house
• Like an unoiled hinge; badly performed
• Could describe a loose floorboard or arthritic limb
• Sounds like the floorboards need changing with credit and a key switched
• Old-fashioned (and unoiled)