Very soon after my mechanic replaced the front controller arm and ball joint the car developed an Intermittent screeching noise. In 20 miles of driving I’ll notice it 1-5 times, unfortunately not at all with my mechanic sitting with me.
Sounds like it’s coming from my front right wheel, but I had pads and rotors done only 25k miles ago.
I notice it mostly when doing a 90 degree turn at low speed and when I brake. But, it happens only a small minority of the time when turning or braking. It has happened both when the car has been cold and hot, but mostly in the morning early during the first 30 seconds of my drive.
Most recently, the screech lasted 3-5 seconds when braking at low speed and going straight, and stopped only around a half second after I released the brake.
An audio is available at dropbox.com. Listen from 20 seconds to 1 minute 20 seconds for 3 obvious noises. User name: TANDICA1@HOTMAIL.com Password: password123
Even without hearing the noise I’m going to guess that the front right brake dust shield got a little bent when the control arm was replaced. It is now nearly touching the brake rotor but doesn’t actually touch until you turn a little bit. Easy fix, just pull it away a very small bit from the rotor at its closest point. Or have your mechanic check it and do that.
I got it to work, you have to add the .com after hotmail. The first squeal sounds like brake pad squeal. The 2nd two noises do sound like maybe the dust shield rubbing. Anyway, that is quite loud, you should check out the brakes and the dust shield.
thanks ! I visited my mechanic yesterday and he told me the power steering fluid was very low. He added quite a bit and the noises didn’t change, so he’s now zero for two. Back to him with dust shield idea next week.
The control arm is part of what holds the wheel in the correct plane so that the tire wears evenly and the car handles safely, so common sense would say, given that the symptom started immediately after control arm work, the problem was a result of that, and is somewhere near the wheel area. It could be a co-incidence, and some of the symptoms sort of sound like the power steering pump is squealing, but first things first: rule out any wheel/brake cause before presuming it is something else.
There’s another possibility in the co-incidence category, the front brake pads have reached their wear limit and the brake warning tab is scraping against the disc. If so, that is what is supposed to happen, to warn the owner brake pad replacement is due. It is usually fairly simple for a shop to check the amount of material left on at least one of the pads by simply removing the wheel.
Thx. I’m developing a theory, based on the input I’ve received, that the dust pad is scraping the rotor under certain circumstances (the really bad noise), and that the out of position dust pad allows debris to accumulate temporarily on the brake pad or somewhere in the braking system to cause the less bad noise.
The mechanic better be able to resolve this next week …
. Check the brake pad mounting clip on the caliper (brake hardware kit) . The tab could be too long on that side and rubbing slightly against the rotor.To fix, cut or bend the end of the clip.
