So at the moment my license is suspended from my accident with my 4th gen, so I've had the pleasure of being chauffeured around. This means other people have been driving my car (though people I trust, my wife, and my dad). Last Friday my dad was driving the family and I up to see a friend. As we pulled into the parking he had the wheel hard right, and he hit the brakes a little hard, the nose dived slightly. However when it did it, there was the creak. It sounded almost like what it sounds like when you pull a nail out of wood.

Later that night I had my wife try it out and listened for it again. Wheel turned right all the way to lock and hit a little hard and you get it. If it was normal braking, not so much. It doesn't do it when the wheel is turned left to lock. Things didn't look out the ordinary. CV joints look okay, no cracks that I can see, no obvious signs of grease in the wheel well. If you bounce the front of the car, it doesn't make noises.

Sunday might wife calls me and says the car is making weird noises. She came home and we went for the drive. It doesn't seem to happen all the time, but that creaking noise seems happen when you get to about 40mph, very lightly on acceleration and deceleration and with a consistent rhythm that seems speed related. My front brakes are warped, and when braking, the noise seems to line up with the pulsing of the brakes. I didn't notice it, but my wife said she could feel it thru the accelerator as well. Also the noise seems to happen going over speed bumps (foot is usually on the brake).

I'm debating whether it brakes (would certainly can use a change up front with the warp rotors), an CV joint (don't quite buy because the sound isn't consistent with what I know what bad joints sound like), or something is busted on the suspension (maybe a bad bushing)? The car has a slight pull to the left, but the sound is certainly comes from the right. The right side brake rotor doesn't show unusual wear from the side I can see thru the wheel, but I'm unsure of the condition of the other side. Driver side rotor has 1 small groove in it.

Thoughts?

S

 

long shot, but check rubber "stoppers" for your hood, can be adjusted by turning.

 

I don't know if that would explain why the is a rhythm that is speed sensitive though.

 

Check your link stabelizers/lower control arm!

 

It definitely appears to be the passenger axle since there is now a thumping that is speed sensitive that comes usually on partial throttle. Acceleration it goes away, braking, or letting your foot completely off the throttle it goes away. I just threw on a new set of pad and rotors. All bushings, ball joint, and tie rod ends look in great shape and there is no play in the control arm, in the steering, or the suspension.

 

does the creaking seem to be more pronounced when you make turns??

I know when this happened to me, it was my wheel bearing/hub

 

Yes and no. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it doesn't do it at all. However I doubt mine is the wheel bearing/hub because of the thumping that's speed/load sensitive. With the front in the air, I turned the hub and it turns smoothly, and there is no play with the hub. My guess is one of the cv joints is binding, causing the entire shaft to vibrate and the creaking noise. The boots look good though.

S

 

try the lower control arms, it seems like thats where the noise is commin from!

 

This may also be a long shot, but take a quick look at the plastic bolt caps on the back of the wheel. I was getting a fairly loud creaking sound with the wheel turned in only one direction with spring compression. Turned out the plastic cap was missing and the stopper bolt was rubbing against the transverse link/arm.

May not be the case, but only takes a minute to check.