Back in June I needed a passenger side drive axle so I bought one from www.Raxles.com. I installed the axle and everything was fine until a few weeks ago when I started hearing some loud scraping/grinding sounds coming from the front passenger side of the car. There were also some very high pitched squeeking sounds. All the sounds were in proportion to my speed up until about 30mph (the slower I drove, the more drawn out and slow the noises became). Also, there was only noise when the car was hot and I had been driving for several minutes, stop and go.
Since I have Sprint springs I figured they caused the Raxles axle to go bad so I called Marty and had him send me a replacement axle under their lifetime warranty.
I installed the new axle on Saturday and today was the first day I drove enough to get the car nice and hot (brakes, engine, etc). The car was making the exact same scraping/grinding/squeeking noises as before the new axle. Obviously it isn't the axle....

Anyone have any idea what could be making these noises? I don't think it is the brakes, could it be the bearings? The fact that it only happens when the car is hot kind of confuses me.

Whatever it is I'll be able to fix it myself, but I just need to figure out what to replace.

Thanks for any info in advance.


-Tony

 

u have an auto or 5spd?

possible tranny/axle bearing?

 

How about wheel bearing?

 

It's possibly the bearing, and that's what I thought after I had replaced the axle. A little bit after the bearing was replaced, the noise was back. The diagnosis: Axle again. And of course, I noticed that the other axle's boot is done, so I need to replace both axles now...aaarrrgg

 

I have an auto. The noise is coming from out by the wheel, not under the car near the tranny. This leads me to beleive that it is the front wheel bearings. I found some instructions on motorvate.com on how to replace them so I think I'm going to do this. Everyone I've spoken to seems to think these noises are caused by bad bearings.

Tony

 

Did you check and see that the metal dust cover to the brake rotor is not touching? that happened to me three weeks

 

No I didn't check that. I guess I will but I doubt that's the problem. The noise only comes when the car and brakes get hot????


Tony

 

To check the wheel bearing, jack up the car on that side and see if you have 'play' in the wheel by moving the wheel up and down with your hands. Wheel should'nt move at all.

 

metal expands when it gets hot. it's possible that's the problem..just the brake heat shield but expect the worse.

 

I would bet that metal shield or wheel bearing

 

it happened to me on the 99max I was working on freaked me the hell out.


I had a similar problem and after a couple of runs with baggs on the freeway and braking alot the noise went away dont know why. The car is sitting now and the noise is back again, I may change the brake pads and go from there.

 

I'll jack the car up tomorrow night after work and check it out. I doubt I'm lucky enough for it to be the heat shield. I think the bearings are only making noise when they get hot and expand. If I drive the car hard for about 10 minutes, the noise is there, otherwise nothing. Anyone know a good online site to buy the front right bearings? Would a local Pep Boys or Autozone carry something like this?
I'd like to replace them ASAP...

Tony