BG Auto

[izembo]

Question for you, whenever I deaccelerate the right front tire area makes a squeeking noise, if i gas, it stops, but whenever im coming to a stop, its a rather annoying noise. What possible things could this be, it'll be a few days till I'll have time to take it to a shop.

[zoobernut]

brake dragging?

[izembo]

im wondering if it might be something with the brakes, i had new brakes and rotors put on about a year ago, didnt think it should be that yet, but it may be

[zoobernut]

Sometimes the pads can get loose or get something stuck to them and when you press your brakes they will squeek. The rotor on the right brake might have a groove in it or be warped or something like that too.

[izembo]

it does have a circular grove going around it about 1cm from the outside

[Norellicus]

Did they do wheel alignment after they did new brakes/rotors? Misalignment can cause warping of the brake system which can cause occasional whining/grinding/humming sounds around the wheels.

Believe it or not could also be power steering or transmission - I had something similar about six months ago, front wheels would make these awful moaning sounds when I'd do specific things (accelerate between 40-50, brake between 30-20, etc), and it was a combined issue with power steering pump and transmission power distribution. Sounds crazy to me but I don't really know ins and outs of auto repair, just what my mechanic explains to me (and I trust him so I don't think I'm getting the wool pulled over my eyes).

[Dimmauk]

Yeah need new brake pads. Might need to get the rotors turned too, and hopefully not have to get new ones.

[Kajii]

your rotors are most likely messing up your pads. get them turned, shouldn't be no more than $15 bucks a rotor.

[Melchiah]

A couple of fun facts:

1) Shop labor is upwards of $85/hour, depending upon location.

2) A mechanic working in a retail-esque shop such as Goodyear or Firestone will get paid about .2-.3 hour to turn your rotors if they are loose, and about .5 hour if they are on the vehicle.

If you were to take your loose rotors(you'd have to remove them yourself or have a friend with tools do it) to such a retail location and discretely hand them to a mechanic with a $10 or $20 bill, you accomplish three things:

1) You pay about half what the shop would charge you for the work(~$40)

2) The mechanic makes $20 bucks tax-free, as opposed to the .3 hours the shop would pay him, while still charging YOU $40, and he'd have to report the income.

3) You get to stick it to the corporate man.

Win-win.

[Elesirdur]

Hell, if you're going to take the rotors off you might as well go to a machine shop yourself and go right to the source.

There's one precision automotive machine shop in my city, and it's where pretty much every garage and dealership sends machine parts (blocks, heads, pistons, cranks, etc) to have work done - and apparently this is a pretty common practice. Get specialized machinists to do the work which frees up individual shops from keeping specialized laborers on staff, and expensive machinery for occasional use. Last time I brought the head off my Daytona in for a planing, the guys were very friendly and even gave me a tour of the shop and a chance to check out all the engines they were building.

Anyway, if you're going to remove machine parts for servicing don't bother going to a garage but find out where the good machine shops are. Good ones will do cash clients jobs as well as any other, and you might see some cool stuff.

[Zigma]

your rotors are most likely messing up your pads. get them turned, shouldn't be no more than $15 bucks a rotor.

I agree, his rotor is warped IMO.

[Melchiah]

Hell, if you're going to take the rotors off you might as well go to a machine shop yourself and go right to the source.

There's one precision automotive machine shop in my city, and it's where pretty much every garage and dealership sends machine parts (blocks, heads, pistons, cranks, etc) to have work done - and apparently this is a pretty common practice. Get specialized machinists to do the work which frees up individual shops from keeping specialized laborers on staff, and expensive machinery for occasional use. Last time I brought the head off my Daytona in for a planing, the guys were very friendly and even gave me a tour of the shop and a chance to check out all the engines they were building.

Anyway, if you're going to remove machine parts for servicing don't bother going to a garage but find out where the good machine shops are. Good ones will do cash clients jobs as well as any other, and you might see some cool stuff.

Most of your retail tire shops are going to have a brake lathe, at least in the area I'm from. In my experience, it's more cost effective to pay a tech at a retail tire shop under the table than to seek out a precision machine shop. Your mileage may vary, but a machine shop is more than likely going to be booked up with big-ticket engine work and won't want to take the time to do a $20 rotor cut.

[izembo]

it ended up being the ball joint and the A bracket thingie behind it, the sound was from metal on metal in the ball joint

[Plow]

Sometimes brake pads are just plain squeaky, the manufacturing process for the actual pad part is not exactly always perfect.

The first thing you should do is take it to the person that did the brake pads in the first place, and they *should* be willing to try replacing the pads free of charge. Almost all brake pads these days have a "lifetime no-squeak" guarantee of some sort.

When you do this, they'll check the rotors by default. If they tell you something needs to be done, take a look at them. Even the most clueless of layman can very easily tell when they're warped, or need to be spun.

it ended up being the ball joint and the A bracket thingie behind it, the sound was from metal on metal in the ball joint

totally missed this somehow >.>

[izembo]

yea, had taken it to the place that did my brakes, since they do all tire related work, and they figured out what it was, have to wait till monday for the parts though to get it fixed

[Ikith]

Hate to hijack the thread.

Having a weird noise all the times I examine the breaks and they look perfect had an auto shop look at them and they say they look fine and shouldn't be causing any noise. Power steering is fine so no noise there. However there is a noise coming from the left front side of the car and the right front (Only when the wheel is turned slightly to the left). We replaced the bearings on both wheels recently as those were shot but now its making the same noise again. I'm thinking its the bearings but I'm hoping its not (Been about 4-5 months since the change) this noise started when I was using low profile tires but I recently switched to normal tires (Less expensive) and the sound persists. I examined near the wheels to see if anything is grinding against it or dragging when it is spinning and nothing is there.

Is it my bearings and if so why are my bearings going out that quick?

[Melchiah]

Did you ensure that the new bearings were packed with new grease before installation?

Greasepacker is about a $10 dollar tool, or you can do it by hand if you like to get messy.

[Azkarin2]

Looking to buy a car that I found on CarMax and had a few questions.

Anybody have an bad experiences with CarMax? Their pricing seems competitive and they have the certain car I've been looking for whereas dealerships don't have the selection.

The car has the original Navigation system in it and I wanted to put my own in. Can I easily remove the Nav system and sell it on Ebay? I saw there were a few up for auction and was wondering if anybody had any experience with this.

Thanks!