any ideas what is causing this

[03glgold]

There is a strange noise coming from my front drivers side wheel area. You can only hear it going slow and even at that you have to either be by a building or leaning out the window to hear it. I just noticed it yesterday night going through a drive-thru. I am slightly confused because it is intermittent in the way that a cv shaft going bad would be however it is a squeak and not the grinding sound. I am not sure if this is hub,brake,axle, or possibly even transmission(why I posted in the l61 section instead of general performance). To me it sounds to be coming from too far out to be the transmission but it is still a foreign noise. I have heard bad cv shafts before and we had to drive all the way from Arkansas with a bad hub on my dads 02' chevy one time, but it doesn't quite match anything. I thought maybe brake related but it happens regardless of braking or not, my brake pads are still about half remaining, and it isn't quite as shrill of a sound as the pad indicator. I took a short video to see if anyone could get an idea of what it was. It is a little windy today and while I can hear it I know what I am listening for...it takes a bit before you can hear it though. If I need to wait until it it is less windy and take another one then I will but I will post up what I have for now.


EDIT: on youtube you can hear it even less than the original recording I will get a new one later, you can try if you like but it isn't very clear

[sleepyalero]

my car has squeaked before while driving. it could be the little medal pieces that hold the brake pads in the caliper...

also could be built up brake dust... when ever i take the brakes off my car i take the pads out of the caliper, and run a flat head around the edges and through the middle of the pads to clean all the break dust out/off around the edges.

other then that, idk.

put the car in neutral, jack up that one side, take wheel off, and spin to see if you can hear it, then try to identify the problem from there.

OHH. also could be a rock in your caliper. it might seem like a rock cant get in there, but trust me it can.

my buddy worked at firestone and i had a rock in my right rear caliper before hes like nooo nooo there cant be a rock in there thats impossible, im like okay... i bet when i take my caliper off a rock will fall out and hit the ground.. hes like okay man w/e.. sure enough once i pulled the caliper off the rotor, a rock fell out.

[03glgold]

I could see the brake dust as a potential problem as I know I have been producing a lot of brake dust.

[sleepyalero]

there is quite a bit there! take the wheel off and examine.

[03glgold]

I bet it will be good to get home next weekend and I plan to rotate tires anyways...I will check that there...however as another mode of procrastination, I may go wash that to see if it makes any difference...I am mainly just making sure that someone isn't going to pop off with something critical that I will do severe damage because home is 150 miles away...There is a shop there with a real jack instead of the jack that came with the car that I am not sure if I trust... I was rotating tires next weekend anyways...rock could also be a possibility...whoever decided it would be a good idea to use pea gravel for the sports complex parking lot is dumb

[sleepyalero]

haha yeah i agree.

im sure you will be fine to drive it. hell, the problem could have been there quite a bit, and you just noticed it the other day. so i think you will be alright. just make sure your tire isnt going to fall off on the way home.

[Nate's Alero]

Both my Alero and Saturn squeak like that, and i just replaced the brakes on my Saturn. it's most likely either the dust shield or the little metal clips rubbing on the rotor, however i would for sure check out that caliper, that looks like it's dragging with all the dust!

[sleepyalero]

yeah you could also have a seized caliper.

way to tell that, is if the inner pad is worn more then the outer pad (or vise versa) your caliper is seized/locked up.

[03glgold]

i don't think it is dragging...the last time it was washed was about 2 weeks after ASS when I made my little brother wash it because he decided to dump power aid out the window while going down the highway and it splatter down the side and i didn't want a sticky car...I also use the brakes way harder than you are supposed to...they don't like 90-20 but I don't like semi trucks on my tail when i pull into our driveway off the highway...i will still look at them though because everything in the brake system is original with the exception of the brake pads and it has 154,68x...I think if it isn't too much I am going to have my transmission fluid changed because when i checked a little using the cherington method what i got out smelled a little burnt(not bad but some) and it was getting really thin (very light pink almost clear instead of red)

[03glgold]

So today i drove a couple miles on the interstate, I rolled my window down after I stopped from getting off the interstate and as I went through the next couple stop lights it increased...I went to walmart for about 30 minutes, the motor was still warm, but it is cool enough the brake system would have had time to cool down... I listened as I left and it wasn't doing it...As I went through the stop lights going across town it slowly began to develop...When I got back I looked it over and noticed that where there is the rust ring around the outside of the rotor where the pad doesn't touch there is a small, probably 2-3 inch long section that is starting to get shined up...I am betting when everything expands that something is able to drag on that area...now I just need to take it apart when I get home and figure out what...I am now almost betting on it being the dust shield, as when I got to walmart it was starting to get a little metallic sound to it and I was beginning to think it was the cv shaft...someone correct me if my reasoning is wrong

[sleepyalero]

wont really know till you give us more insight when you investigate.

[03glgold]

that will happen next weekend...i guess if it goes boom then I know that it was something much worse

[sleepyalero]

i think you'll be okay.

[03glgold]

figured i would update this, by the time that i got home the sound had completely resolved itself...While I was rotating my tires I am actually amazed by how tight everything is and how little rust there is especially with 155,000 steering completely stiff and the original tie rods have less rust than the ones on my truck that are about 3-4 years old...pinch welds still solid, the only bad I noticed is that the drivers side transmission seal is seeping but not enough to leave a puddle and i can stick my finger in and still touch fluid though I probably need to think about fixing that...also my original rotors are finally about due to be changed due to the fact in the center area you can chip away layer after rusted layer they probably aren't that safe anymore...was planing on doing this next time I needed brakes anyways because there is only about 3/16" of metal between the outside and the flutes...also my IAT sensor reminded me that it is getting old on monday when i stalled out while parking...came out 2 hours later ran better than it had all day before and has ran perfect since

[sleepyalero]

good to hear man.

[03glgold]

it's back
the good news is I believe I know what is causing it while the bad news is I have not isolated the exact part producing the sound though I believe it has to do with the leaking axle seal on the drivers side

When it first started the last time I was in a hurry so I backed out fast and whipped the front end a little...the way that I have to go (one way street) the pull would be on the drivers side...I suspected that as a possible cause so I have been being fairly cautious about doing this...today I forgot about an advising meeting until almost 2 hour after it was scheduled so in a hurry to leave and get there, I backed out a little faster than I intended and did that again...the street I live on has many cracks so I suspect that when it happens it is yanking the wheel and something, is getting stuck out of place and rubbing until it works back in...as I am typing this I have to ask is it possible that it is pulling the axle to the point the splines on the end of the cv shaft are getting caught up on the seal and chewing away until it work back to its seat and that is why the seal has started to seep
I think that it will probably go away as it did last time, however I need to figure out the whole problem because while I have done this before in multiple vehicles including the alero while in empty parking lots messing around, I have never experienced such a problem
even in the parking lots it has never been at a high enough speed or close enough to anything where it would cause any sort of personal injury or in a way to put anybody in danger

[03glgold]

bump

[a.graham52]

dubt it. if your axle shaft was getting pulled that far out you would have a horribly grinding/growling noise because your cv shaft is no longer inthe trans and would also result in going no where.

[03glgold]

i didn't no how far the splines went down the shaft, never dealt with a cv shaft before