My daughter’s '87 Bonneville has an audible squeak coming from the drivers side front wheel. It squeaks in sync with the rotation of the wheel, that is, if I am driving fast the squeak is fast, driving slow the squeak is slow. It squeaks louder when turning right. I barely hear the squeak or don’t hear the squeak at all if I am turning left. It is definitely a squeak and not a click. There is no sqeak at all when the car is stopped. The squeak is the same whether I am coasting in neutral or have it in gear. What should I check?
Have the front brakes checked. The wear indicator is a piece of metal designed to rub on the rotor and squeak like this when the pads get too thin.
Touch Your Brakes, While Squeaking!
Usually doing that will make the squeak momentarily stop if the brake-wear indicators are telling you to: “Have somebody check your brakes.”
If you have wheel covers, remove the front pair and see if the sound goes away.
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Sorry I have not posted back yet – had an urgent plumbing project on the kitchen sink that took precendence. I will check the front brakes and post back. Thanks!
When It Rains…It Pours!
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Well I finally had a chance to check the front brakes and there is plernty of thickness on the pads. The pads look almost as thick as brand new ones. If this isn’t the brakes, what else might it be?
bump.
Did you check to see that the wear indicators weren’t bent and touching the rotors?
While it’s jacked up, you may also want to spin the wheels to see if it squeaks. It being an '87, it could be a bearing. You should hear that with the wheel jacked up.
Nope. I just looked through the wheel covers and saw that there was plenty of thickness on the pads. I’ll go back and pull the p-ads and have a closer look.
I’ll do the spin check as well.
Thanks, tsm!
I pulled the wheel off and visually checked the brake-wear indicator. It is a good distance away from touching the disc. So that is definitely not the source of the squeak. When I hand-turned the wheel I did not hear the squeak. But that does not surprise me since, while driving, the squeak disappears when the weight of the car is shifted away from that wheel such as in a turn. The squeak also disappears when braking. Any other ideas?
bump.
I have the same problem on '99 Jeep Cherokee. Both front(?) wheels squeak or chirp at the speed the car is traveling. As soon as I hit the breaks approaching a stop sign it goes away. I have had my breaks checked twice (at different places) and I was told my breaks are fine. I am thinking it is a bearing but that doesn’t explain why it stops squeaking during breaking…
Help!
I have a 2012 Nissan versa with exactly the same issue with my front driver side tire. I read one another thread that it could be a cracked brake pad and sometimes it’s very hard to see when it’s cracked. Also everyone breezed over comment about taking your hubcaps off I have had that in the past be the culprit. Unfortunately this time I’m not so lucky I jacked it up and tugged on my tireand it’s not my bearing
Rather then someone reading through a thread that is 12 years old it would be best to start your own so replies will only be to your problem and your vehicle.
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Hi Melhorn:
As noted earlier, do have your brake pads checked out. The wear indicators are designed to intentionally squeek when the pad thickness gets thin.
I see no problem continuing an existing thread where the same problem is being discussed. There is no site rule one way or the other.