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Squealing Wheels-Not Brakes

21 years ago

1997 dodge Intrepid, 95,000 miles.

Wheels (I'm pretty sure) are squealing, the squeals are not timed with braking, but rather just while driving.

Thoughts?

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Comments (6)

john999
21 years ago
Hub-caps ? Sometimes he sidewalll rubs on them and makes them squeal.
earthworm
21 years ago
Posted by stats99 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 25, 05 at 21:01

1997 dodge Intrepid, 95,000 miles.
Wheels (I'm pretty sure) are squealing, the squeals are not timed with braking, but rather just while driving.
Thoughts
Nigh impossible for the wheels to "squeal"..But it could be a bad wheel cover - these, being a little loose, would cause rattles...
Test for the brakes being on due to a bad caliper or master cylinder.

Probably a slightly bent backing plate is causing this...Its clearance must be more than just 1 to 2 mm !!
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Rotor spec for your car is 1.102 nominal, 1.024 minimum thickness. That means when machining my preference is to not go closer than .030 of the discard or 1.054 for the unofficial minimum machining thickness. Rotors of course can be machined off the car and have been for decades. However the preferred method for your car is to machine them on the car. That provides automatic correction for any wheel hub run-out. That's one of the reasons they are fastened to the hub with those two screws. The other reason of course is so that during initial assembly they don't fall off on the assembly line before the calipers are installed. But when you need to remove them, how does a tech do it? I have two methods. One is an impact screwdriver that operates by inertia. There are spiral groves in between the inner and outer portions of the tool, and when you hit it with a hammer and force it to collapse, the inertia of the outer half not wanting to start turning, forces the inner section to try t turn and tighten or loosen a screw depending on the tools setting. Almost every motorcyle tech will be familliar with this tool, they have existed since the 60's at the least. In fact mine is probably the oldest tool in my tool box, having purchased it in the early 70's. But it does not always work, sometimes the screws are simply too tight, and I break the screwdriver bit pretty often. That forces me to use the second method, which ruins the screw. I take a large center punch, and start by making a deep pin hole into the edge of the screw, without hitting the rotor. Once the hole is there, I move the punch to an angle to force the screw to turn by driving it with the punch and hammer. With practice this is really simple and has never failed to remove one of those screws. On a few occasions I have even been able to re-use them. Lastly, 1 1/16" translates to approximately 1.060 (about .030 for 1/32) IMO you would not have been able to machine those rotors successfully, as they would be getting too thin to allow for enough material to deal with the heat generated by braking. Plus six years old on a vented rotor, the rust that builds up in the middle cooling vanes prevents the rotor from cooling efficiently. Plus, the same rusting makes the rotor structurally weaker and prone to "crushing" which is one of the primary causes of rotor thickness variation. All those things together make it unadviseable to have not replaced these rotors when doing the brakes. At the same time we haven't talked about how good the calipers really are, and the caliper slides, how free are they? What about the rear brakes, did you check them? The parking brake assembly? How is the fluid, should it have been flushed? There is so much more to replacing brakes, than just simply slamming a set of pads. That's why you will never see my quote things like the "$99.00 brakes, additional work extra routine".
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It's possible that one side is a little dirtier than the other, or that pad is breaking in a little differently. I wouldn't worry too much about though if it's just a squeak and only for the first few applications. One really nice thing about the fact that so many cars now have alloy wheels rather than hubcaps as they used to have is that you can keep a lot better eye on your brakes without much effort. Most of the alloy wheels have big spaces in them that you can see through, and you can look at your rotors periodically and make sure they look approximately the same from side to side, and aren't scored too badly. One other good way to test your brakes is to apply them moderately on a smooth, level road and make sure the car doesn't pull one way or the other. If the car stops straight and smooth, with no pulling to one side or the other, I think your brakes are probably fine.
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GMC_ASE_TECH
21 years ago
Posted by: earthworm (My Page) on Tue, Jul 26, 05 at 12:45

Posted by stats99 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 25, 05 at 21:01
1997 dodge Intrepid, 95,000 miles.
Wheels (I'm pretty sure) are squealing, the squeals are not timed with braking, but rather just while driving.
Thoughts
Nigh impossible for the wheels to "squeal"..But it could be a bad wheel cover - these, being a little loose, would cause rattles...
Test for the brakes being on due to a bad caliper or master cylinder.

Probably a slightly bent backing plate is causing this...Its clearance must be more than just 1 to 2 mm !!

====================================================================================================================================================================================
Another Great WORM quote. While he's at it, maybe Stats should check the MUFFLER BEARING, or FIREWALL GASKET !

Here's a stab in the dark Earthworm, Wheel Bearing. Check those and also check and see if the wear guage on the back of the Brake pad is touching the Rotor. Both of those would make the noise you described. Good luck and post back with the results.
User
Original Author
21 years ago
Thanks.

The noise stops when I apply the brakes. also seems to stop when i make a right turn and increase if I turn wheel to the left!
brianl703
21 years ago
Worn wheel bearings usually rumble instead of squeaking. (I've never heard of a wheel bearing squeaking, and I think the reason why is that the bearings and the hub are simply too heavy to vibrate fast enough to produce a high-pitched noise).

Yes, a bent backing plate/dust shield CAN cause this..and it WILL stop when the brakes are applied..and if turning in the right direction..had this exact problem with a 1993 Ford Escort.
Pilm
15 years ago
This is exactly what happened to me recently, heard a very noticable scratchy kind of squeal from my front right wheel. Thought it might be the brake indicator, but I only changed front brakes 2 years ago, so it didn't seem like it could be a brake problem. So I jacked up the front wheel and rotated it and heard the noise, then looked behind the wheel and saw the dust shield was touching the rotor on one side. So I took a screwdriver and just bent it a few mils back so that it cleared, and the noise is gone. Not really sure what caused it to suddenly start touching, I don't recall driving into a sidewalk or anything, but anyway, that seems to have solved the problem!

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