VetteUSA

A very very loud squeeling noise started happening tonight on my my way home from work. It got so loud that i had to pull over 2 or 3 times to check it out. It was pitch black by the time i left work.

Background. Yesterday, I took off the driver's side rear wheel to inspect the whole area, as I have, for quite a while, also heard a clicking sound at the right rear wheel whenever i changed to reverse/drive/or went over speed bumps, etc. (I proceeded to spray EVERYTHING in the rear wheel area with WD40) The squeaking noise, however, did not happen until tonight. When i pulled over, i thought i perhaps had tightened the lug nuts too tight the day before, so I loosened the nuts a bit and retightened. The squeaking noise lessened for a little bit, sort of started and stopped, started and stopped, then slowly but surely became constant and very loud again. As far as i can tell, it's only occuring once per wheel revolution. My first thought was that the caliper might be rubbing against something, but that would usually make a metal scraping sound, no? (instead of the squeeling/squeaking sound i was experiencing.)

When I removed my wheel yesterday, i noticed that the caliper did have a little bit of play, I was able to move it a bit, enough so where i thought that it wasn't normal. Is it normal for a caliper to have a little bit of side to side play?

Please help guys, it almost seemed as though my wheel was going to fall off. It's Not a good feeling when the squeak is so loud that you think the car is going to fall apart on you right then and there.

Any ideas of what could be wrong?

T.I.A.

Robert

jrzvette

eschoendorff

I suppose that it *could* be something loose or sloppy in the rotor area, but you'll want to check your wheel bearing too...

aminnich

That sounds like the wheel bearing has failed. Ujoint is another possibility, but that should also have caused a vibration. Jack it up and check for movement in the tire (parking brake off). Grab it at the 12 and 6 and then again at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. However the 'clunk' in going first to reverse is almost always a u joint, not a bearing.

JrRifleCoach

U-joints or wheel bearing.

Need to jack it up and start shaking things.

BTW If your gonna do one side, might as well do the other right now.

Ask me how I know.........

vader86

wheel bearing

C4boy

Bet you a dozen donuts it's a half shaft u-joint.


With the car running, put your foot on the brake and shift back and forth between reverse and drive. If you hear a clink, clunk or screach, then check the joints. You'll have to jack up the rear wheel, chock front wheels, put car in neutral and turn the axle shaft. You should be able to hear and feel the screech through the aluminum half shaft. Try and hold the outer yoke with one hand and turn the axle shaft with the other - there should be zero play. It may take a few minutes of really looking in there to tell. Even a small amount of play in the caps will give you that "clunk". Also, look for rust around any of the u-joint bearing caps. That's a sign the bearing grease may have dried up and trunions or bearings have rusted. You can also do the same test for the joints in the driveshaft, though I'm pretty sure it's your axle joints.

I've got a bunch of u-joint info I've been meaning to post. Maybe I can get it up tomorrow and you can see if it's useful.

newbecorvetteguy

One or the other. Have a helper listen for the noise as you drive the car in your driveway. Check for slop in the bearing like he says. Look for rust around one or more trunnions.

c4cruiser

Sounds like wheel bearing. As mentioned, if you have to do one, then do the other side at the same time. The half-shafts have to be removed for the bearing replacement, so you may as well have the u-joints replaced in them while they are out.

VetteUSA

Thanks guys for all of your input thus far. Helps tremendously.
C4boy, if you can post any more of that info, i'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

purplewindworm

I am gonna have to take sides with C4Boy Half Shaft U-joint

VetteUSA

The rear wheel area was squeaking, but I didn't feel or notice any kind of vibration.

VetteUSA

Do you guys think I should be ok driving the vette for just a few days? I'm going to have it put on a lift and checked out tomorrow morning and diagnosed at Brake Check for free. I've got work and don't really have time to mess around with it myself at any time other than the weekend. I trust Brake Check, they worked on my brakes last year (in San Antonio) and treated the car well. I hope the estimate of the work isn't too high.

Should I be ok to drive the car for at least a few days until i can get it fixed. Is it urgent enough where i shouldn't drive it at all unless it's necessary?

aminnich

You are getting a loud metal on metal squealing, NO I would not drive it.

VetteUSA

Well, it's off to brake check tomorrow morning at 7, then if needed, i'll go to Corvette Country tomorrow morning as well to have the service guy check it out. If it goes to corvette country, i'll likely be without the car all day. no driving the vette at lunchtime. And I'll only be happy if the total cost of repair is less than $10. .

VetteUSA

posted this in the other ujoint thread by accident:

I think i'm going to have to pay... they're asking $468.11 (includes parts)... $40.88 for the parts, inner / outer left rear U-joints. One of them is almost completely locked up he said, the splines are dried up too, they'll grease those up too.

I just can't put this off for a few more days, I guess i'll pay them the $$ to have it fixed up. There go my new tires.

I was expecting 400-600 anyway. worth the peace of mind. and I don't need to cause further damage to my vehicle by driving it. Better safe then sorry, especially with something like that. Squeeling, and then today scraping and clunking sounding like pieces breaking. damn. I'd do the work myself, but living in an open apartment complex doesn't exactly give me the space or time to do major work like that.

Thanks guys. I can deal with the cost of this one. I've saved myself a bunch of $$ by doing almost all of my car repairs myself. I can afford this. (as you might have guessed, i'm trying to justify the price they're asking)

VetteUSA

I've been stressing the past couple of days about this problem. Have had a headache the past couple of days because of it. Now that i got off the phone with the shop and i know they're going to fix everything like new, my headache has amazingly disappeared (serious).

aminnich

Take 2 aspirin and call us in the morning.

Is that price for just one side, or both? Shame you can't do it yourself, but apartment manager would probably kick you out if they saw you doing it in the parking lot. Good to know it is almost solved and back on the road again soon.

VetteUSA

Yep, that's the price for just one side. After i got off the phone with him, I called him back and asked him about doing the right side. He said if the did the right side it'd be double the price. $940+, no freakin' way i'd pay that much. needless to say, i told him just to do the left side. I figured they could charge me just for the extra parts for the right side , and not labor, but (expectedly) that wasn't the case.

I wish I could tackle this one one my own, i really do. The apartment lease says not to do vehicle repairs at the complex (but that's never stopped me before ). Unfortunately, i also don't feel i'm ready to tackle this kind of project on my own, particularly with my somewhat limited variety of tools. Hopefully, by the time my other u-joint(s) go bad (knock on wood), I'll at least have a garage to do the work in.

aminnich

If you do go for it yourself let me know. I have a really good step by step procedure, with great pictures that would make it easy for you. I tried to copy it here earlier, but could not get it to copy.