i know the only way to know for sure is to jack the car up and take a look up close. but its cold outside and i rather bring it to a shop. usually i like to buy and parts ahead of time to save money and time. hopefully maybe someone on the org has had a similar problem?

anyways... whenever i make a right turn, on the driver side front wheel i hear a metal scratching noise. it kind of sounds like if you were rubbing metal slightly against a spinning metal disc. the sound volume goes up and down which leads me to believe its something loose?

i have stock rotors, pads, calipers and the 97-99 se 16" rims
i did recently get my suspension reinstalled (had to replace the upper strut bearings)

 

Did you check the wheel bearings or CV joints?

 

what about that dust sheild..i think thats what its called.But your right...best bet is to jack up and inspect.

 

^+1 on dust shield

 

If it is the dust shield behind the rotor, no need to even jack the car up. Just get a screwdriver and a hammer, bang it back through the spokes in the wheel.

 

I had a similar problem recently, drivers side noise when making a right turn, it ended up being the front sway bar end link. You could hear the noise if you pushed down on the car also. Your problem/noise may be different but that is something to consider.

 

+1

To the OP, how loud is the "metal scratching noise"?

 

was the noise even similar to the one i described?
and first thing tomorrow morning i will do a simple dust boot check

hopefully its something that simple

 

This is probably not your case but when I took of one of my wheels to check something when I put it back, I didn't tighten the lug nuts enough and after a while the nuts came loose and whenever I drove the one wheel would make a loud grinding noise. Until I realized that some lug nuts were missing and so I tightened the hell out of the remaining ones and bought new ones and tightened the hell out of those too

 

[I] It sounded more like a squeaking noise not really metallic. I memtioned it because it was occuring on right turns. It also happened if you pressed down on the front end. Your issue is probably something different but I thought I would mention it just in case.