Front wheel bearing(s)? Halp!

[Lohman446]

Non-greasable ball joints will squeek, as stated its generally with movement of front suspension, but they will. So will greasable, but the problem is prevelant in the non-greasable ones. A "groan" though is the normal complaint related to them.

[punkncat]

If you lift the front end up, put the car in neutral, you should be able to spin the wheels. If you can shake the wheel and get play on the wheel itself and not the a frame then it will be bearings. You should also be able to tell by the way it spins.

Something else to consider may be a belt or pulley bearing. Is the speed increase with wheel speed, or engine speed?

You have low mileage to have a failed wheel bearing, however there are quite a few recent model GM cars that have had that very issue. GL

[neppo1345]

Okay, had a chance to pull off the wheel, caliper, and rotor and do a little poking around.

My vehicle does not have shields behind the rotors, so nothing was rubbing there...


However, upon further inspection I found that something was indeed rubbing on my rotors.


I examined the calipers, pads, hub, everything but could not find anything that was even close to rubbing on the back of the rotors. The grooves don't seem to even correspond to anything that could rub.

The only thing that I can think of is that some of the brake hardware (brass shims and clips) is being pushed into the rotor over time (after two or three stop and go's). I find this possible only because the squeal was not immediately present after reinstalling the wheel, it didn't start until several stops down the road.

I may see if I can get a set of the clips; swap them out to see if it stops.

Any other ideas?

+1 to Loh for being in the ballpark.

[Lohman446]

Is there a ridge of rust on that mounting surface (where the rotor meets the flange on the hub) that is causing the rotor to be slightly out of place? These will sometimes cause them to tip out of position to some degree and make contact with the pad sometimes. You would think that you would be able to see whatever was making contact with the rotor. I don't see it in the picture.

[punkncat]

On some pads there is a "cricket" that is designed to let you know when the pads are nearing runout. In many cases they will only line up one way, in a particular spot (outer or inner) w/o pushing the cricket forward into the pad. The line that you have tend to correspond to that location.

[behemoth]

you failed the brake job, n00b.

.

[neppo1345]

Some of the modern "economy" vehicles have clip on hubcaps, and that noise you are descrbing used to be a common occurance when hubcaps were on every vehicle. If you have them you might grease contact points


I would still lean towards a backing plate and away from a wheel bearing as most likely though.

Lohman wins.

Went to the dealership today, they said the the 'silencer ring' was broken off of the hubcap. I refused to pay 50.00 for a new hubcap so I am now rolling in g-mode with the stamped steelies. Thinking about just putting some new wheels on it, I feel it would look 'dope' with some blacked out seven spokes...

Might as well considering I'm going to need new tires soon anyway.

Thanks to everyone for the help, I really appreciate it.

[maniacmechanic]

'silencer ring' on a hubcap , now if that ain't a way to make cash what is ; oh this ; Why yes maam it is bad , we will probley have to replace the axle & bearings & we may find something else & that would be extra