Hey guys, I really need some help diagnosing a weird problem with my hatch. Ever since I swapped the GSR knuckles onto my EK, as mentioned in an earlier post, I've had bad camber and toe-in probs. I have an appointment with Darrin at West End later this week to get that sorted out but I have another issue that's been bugging the hell out of me and I can't pinpoint the problem whatsoever.

There is literally a tire chirping sound, like when a tire loses traction or if you slam it into 2nd etc..whenever I make a turn either left or right. The sounds are coming from the front two wheels. It makes a really loud rubber chirping sound consistently through the whole turn. The harder I turn the louder it gets. I recall that bad wheel bearings sound more like a low drone/moaning/flat spot on the tire kind of sound that increases with speed or load, but this sound is a very obvious high pitched tire chirping noise.

Just to be safe, when I was changing the oil this weekend, I checked everything underneath and all looked fine. While the car was still on stands, I tried to wobble the wheels to see if perhaps it was a bad bearing, but the wheel was pretty solid. What the heck could it be? I've searched the boards and no one has mentioned anything close to what I'm experiencing. Could it still possible be bad wheel bearings because I've heard that the "trying to wobble the wheel" method is not always accurate, but the sound is so unlike the way most ppl describe bad wheel bearings to sound like. Also, I can sometimes hear it when going straight, but not as loudly as when I turn.

What perplexed me even further was the other day when I turned into a plaza that was newly repaved. While turning, the same sound was there, but when I began driving straight, the car made the squealing/chirping sound the whole way through the freshly paved parking lot. It was weird because when I drive on the street, I rarely hear it going in a straight line. So what do you guys think? Should I still suspect the wheel bearings or could this be some kind of weird alignment problem that will be sorted out after a trip to West End? I have really bad camber and toe-in after the knuckle swap so I even raised the car thinking the tires were rubbing somewhere to make that sound, but no luck! Sorry for the ultra long post, but I really need some advice on where I should look for the problem!!! Thanks!!!

 

Somebody came to me a year ago with the same problem, i drove the car, It was a loose alternator belt???

 

definitely not the belts. It comes from both ends and I had a friend sit in my car to listen and it's coming from the wheelwells. thanks though, anyone else have any ideas???

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SoichiroH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">anyone else have any ideas??? </TD></TR></TABLE>
When was the last time it was aligned? Sounds like the tires are scrubbing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chiovnidca &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When was the last time it was aligned? Sounds like the tires are scrubbing.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, after you get a good alignment the problem should clear up.

 

cool, thanks for the replies guys, I have an appt. Friday for an alignment. Scrubbing sounds like a likely culprit for my excessive tire noise...hopefully that's what it is...

 

update: yeah it was making noise from really excessive toe-in. Car is aligned and all good