1996 SL2 front wheel squeak

1996 SL2 with traction control and ABS has recently developed an obnoxious
squeak, apparently from the RF wheel. The squeak begins at about 10 mph, and
changes in frequency in accordance with vehicle speed. Ordinarily, I'd be
thinking brakes, except that applying the brakes makes no difference whatever
in the squeak -- and the pads and rotors were new this spring, and have less
than 8K miles.

Any ideas?

 

front struts or motor mounts.

 

Thanks for the suggestion -- but I doubt very much that either the front
struts or the motor mounts would produce a squeak that varies directly with
the vehicle speed. That doesn't make sense.

 

Based on your description and if the disc brake pads are in good shape, then
I'd suspect this was caused by a bad wheel bearing. At 190K miles, both
fronts will likely need doing. Good luck.

Bob

 

Wow, that's one I wouldn't have guessed. In my experience, failing front wheel
bearings don't squeak, they whine, then clunk, then bang Bang BANG BANG.

OTOH, this SL2 is the first FWD car I've ever owned. Aside from one 4WD truck,
everything else I had before was RWD, and the structure of the front hub and
bearing assembly is just a little bit different.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll pull the brake and inspect, then have a look
at the bearings -- and I'll follow up with my findings.

 

Not sure if your 96 SL2 is the same, or not -
my 02 SL1 had a squeaky RF axel "hanger bearing"
for lack of a better term.
The dealer originally said it was a $ 700 fix
replacing axel / CV / etc
Then after "double checking" a $ 60. rebuild kit
and 1.5 hours labour did the trick.
jt

 

I had both bearings go at 330k miles on my 92 Saturn. They produced
this very low frequency whining noise that resembled a fully loaded
747 taking off and it would start at around 30 mph.
Initially I thought it was the tires making the noise but upon closer
inspection I found that it was the bearings.

 

it's the front stuts, probably the strut nounts. You should be able to
duplicate the squeak by pushing down quite vgorously on the front of
the car. If the mounts get debree in them such as sand or mud they
will fail quite quickly. Becaus you need to romve the strut to remove
the mount I would just replace struts and mounts. Total is about $116
if you do the work

 

Actually, it was the bearings. Replaced both and now the car rides as
good as new. However,
I will take a look at the struts too as they are still original parts,

 

Perhaps you should consider reading a bit more carefully before posting...

If you were responding to the post quoted above, you clearly missed the part
where he said that he'd already found the problem to be bearings -- not to
mention which there is *no way* that a strut problem could produce the noise
he described. And if you were responding to *my* original post in this thread,
well, bad struts *can* produce a squeak, but you evidently missed the part
where I said the squeak varies with the vehicle speed, which means it's
clearly coming from some rotating part.

 

excuse me!! just relating to a squeak problem my son acquired after he
drove over a sandy road ( with brand new mounts ) sand go into them
and they would squeak with any slight movement (up and down) of the
vehicle. Replaced them and all has been fine, thank God they were
warranty items from Advance Auto Parts.

 

That's what mine turned out to be. Alas, no rebuild kit for the 96. :-(