My wife got this beautiful 2000 Olds Alero from her mom when she quit driving. It had 11,000 miles on it two years ago when she got it.
It seems it has always had this grunt at each wheel revolution, definitely in the front end. She took it to a mechanic who “sanded the front disks” for $90. That didn’t help so she took it to another mechanic who said it simply needed a front brake job. She had that done and it seemed like it helped but it came back.
My wife has a 50 mile daily commute so the miles are piling up. It now has 39,000 and the grunt is as loud as ever. She took it to still another mechanic who drove it and didn’t hear anything. Hedid suggest taking it to a do-it-yourself car wash and flush out the brakes. We did that and it was quiet for maybe two days.
This noise is most audible during turns. Is it possible that this car already needs CV joints at only 39K? If not, what else could be causing this noise?
It sounds like the problem may be due to dust accumulation from the brake pads. If washing out the wheel area with a pressure wand helped, that i my best guess. I suggest you try ceramic pads next time you do a brake job. The ceramic material will last a tad bit longer, and the dust will not accumulate anywhere near as bad. We switched on our Explorer, and the mag rims stay clean a whole lot longer. They do tend to cost twice as much. For my truck, they were $40 vs the $20 for the semi-metallics. But, the braking power is no different. And the rotors last a lot longer too.