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Rubbing Noise Making Me Nuts


OynxSTS

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On left and right turns my car has developed a very annoying and pronounced rhythmic noise almost like you would get rubbing your hands past each other. The rubbing is directly related to the speed of the car, i.e. the faster you go around a corner the faster the rubbing noise. swish...Swish... SWISH... <_<

I have eliminated the brakes. They are silent. As well, the tires are not rubbing on any suspension bits or the body… Running along side my car as my wife drives in circles :rolleyes: I have also eliminated the back wheels. Its definitely the front ones. Interestingly the noise is louder inside the car than out...

While they still have a “legal” amount of tread; honestly, the tires have 48,000 miles on them and are pretty much shot. If it helps I think the noise started about 1000 miles ago and seems to be getting worse...

I would be betting that the noise is nearly worn out tires scrubbing against the road except the noise is not constant...

Before I take the car to the dealer, has anyone else experienced this?

Any thoughts, suggestions?

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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Wow I love this site,

Thanks for the awesomely fast response...

I'll swap the tires tonight and report back tomorrow.

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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If you think the culprits are the front tires why won't you just rotate them to see if it makes any difference? How about bad hub bearings? The noises they make vary widely. Make some "S" (zigzags) to see if the noise pattern is correlated to the direction you turn.

The saddest thing in life is wasted talent

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Tires swapped...

There was a fair bit more tread on the backs ones... Wish I had done that before last month's snow.... ;)

I don't think it’s the bearings... It might be... But

1) The noise is wrong...It's a rubbing “swish swish” not a “brrt brrt “ noise.

2) There is zero play in the front wheels

3) The noise is about the same turning left and right…

4) Speed of turn does not seem to make the rubbing louder...Just faster

On the otherhand, the noise does seem to be worse the tighter the turn, but any moderate turn will do it… Of course Straight = Silence

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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Swapping the tires didn't help...

But, now that I'm really listening to it, it does seem to be somewhat louder turing left than right...

IIRC Noisey left turn = bad right bearing

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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Swapping the tires didn't help...

But, now that I'm really listening to it, it does seem to be somewhat louder turing left than right...

IIRC Noisey left turn = bad right bearing

Perhaps it makes sense to lift the car up with a hoist and turn the wheels while idling. Are the CV boots OK? Another possibility is that something touches rotating parts because of centrifugal force while turning.

The saddest thing in life is wasted talent

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Perhaps it makes sense to lift the car up with a hoist and turn the wheels while idling. Are the CV boots OK? Another possibility is that something touches rotating parts because of centrifugal force while turning.

Great minds think alike. :lol:

I did this last night before I swapped the tires. This was how I eliminated the brakes. While the car is in the air, even with the suspension as loaded as I could make it the rubbing is absent, even at full lock.

CV joints look OK too.

My wife thinks this is all hilarious; I buy a car new enough and pay a little extra so that it still has a good chunk of factory warrantee and then spend my evenings with the car on axel jacks scaring the neighbours. ;)

It’s off to the dealer next week… and I’ll report back. I promise only to report technical results and not rant about my dealer… :D

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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The swish/swish sounds as if it could be the brakes, rubbing your hands together and pads on the rotors make similar sounds. Tires would most liekely make a whining, moaning, whirring sound more so than a swish.

Have you tried to apply the brakes ever so slightly while you're driving? If the swish goes away, I'd bet money that it's the brakes.

It's a good guess that they hanged a new set of pads on the car before you boutht it. It's another good guess that they chunked them on unturned rotors because they "didn't need turning." Any rotor that has been in contact with a pad needs turning when new pads are installed.

If the rotors are "good," if you had them turned, meaning just a tiny shave to polish them up, not a huge slice taken out, I bet 'cha the swish would go away. If it's detemined that it's the brakes making the noise and you still get a swish, the next best guess is the Stabilink, the contraption that applies the brakes to control skids.

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The swish/swish sounds as if it could be the brakes, rubbing your hands together and pads on the rotors make similar sounds. Tires would most liekely make a whining, moaning, whirring sound more so than a swish.

Have you tried to apply the brakes ever so slightly while you're driving? If the swish goes away, I'd bet money that it's the brakes.

It's a good guess that they hanged a new set of pads on the car before you boutht it. It's another good guess that they chunked them on unturned rotors because they "didn't need turning." Any rotor that has been in contact with a pad needs turning when new pads are installed.

If the rotors are "good," if you had them turned, meaning just a tiny shave to polish them up, not a huge slice taken out, I bet 'cha the swish would go away. If it's detemined that it's the brakes making the noise and you still get a swish, the next best guess is the Stabilink, the contraption that applies the brakes to control skids.

"Stabilink, the contraption that applies the brakes to control skids."

Thanks An01...

This does hold some merit but I'm not sure how to test it. My car did have a historic bad yaw sensor error about the time that this all started (1500 miles ago) but the dealer said that there was nothing wrong with the Stabiltrak system. They cleared the code and it hasn't returned.

The brakes on the car are fairly new (<5000 Miles) and the rotors were turned... The job was done at the dealer under warrantee (one free brake job with these cars)... :D

To try and investigate the problem, I did place the car on axel jacks with the suspension "loaded", I disengaged the traction control and while I sat by each front wheel listening for anything, I got my wife to carefully (very carefully :unsure: ) run the car up to 20 MPH and slow it (I mentioned the careful part) with the brakes... Nothing... I also got her to brake torque the car to that the engine was pulling against ever so slightly applied brakes... Nothing... I also got her to let the wheels turn freely in drive at idle.... Nothing... We then tried all kinds of wheel positions left and right from lock to lock....Nothing... Put the car back on the road... with the tires and bearings "loaded" wump wump wump... As I mentioned the faster the turn the faster the wumping.

Oh ya, I forgot to mention since my last post I took a bit of a road trip to visit my in-law, lots of 80MPH+ freeway blasts and the swishing has degenerated into a wumping…

The dealer gets a look tomorrow at 7:30. Wish me luck...

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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OK, for me going to the dealer ranks up there with a trip to the dentist.

So tonight when I got the car home from work I figured I would give it one more look see myself.

I pulled the passenger wheel one more time…

There is an interesting new addition to my wheel well, on the rearward half of the plastic cladding inside the wheel well is a small, thin stream and a couple of blobs of dark bluish grease! Smells a lot like differential fluid…

As I noted before the CV Boot looks AOK...

When the hubs go do they barf out grease?

Other than the CV joint and the hub, where could the grease come from?

Please extend my apologies to all dentists and hygienists on this list.

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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OK, for me going to the dealer ranks up there with a trip to the dentist.

So tonight when I got the car home from work I figured I would give it one more look see myself.

I pulled the passenger wheel one more time… 

There is an interesting new addition to my wheel well, on the rearward half of the plastic cladding inside the wheel well is a small, thin stream and a couple of blobs of dark bluish grease!  Smells a lot like differential fluid…

As I noted before the CV Boot looks AOK... 

When the hubs go do they barf out grease?

Other than the CV joint and the hub, where could the grease come from?

The hub bearing will not spout out grease, the CV joint will however and it may not be obvious that its split and if its split it may make noise. When I worked on my front end yesterday I was surprised how tight and stiff the CV boot was, if it was split in the fold it would be hard to see...but it would throw grease

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"Bluish grease" is from the CV joint. Check the boot VERY closely. Stick your finger in each of the "valleys" and feel for a split. I have had them split there and I couldn't see it. Most likely the grease has been thrown out and the joint is dry and probably shot.

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When the hubs go do they barf out grease?

Other than the CV joint and the hub, where could the grease come from?

Grease might come from lower ball joint excessive greasing??? :huh:

When one of my front hub bearings went south I noticed the speed sensor (magnetic one I guess) came really close to the tooth wheel and actually was quite shaved :o . I do not know whether it made any noise (the noise actually might be buried with the noise the bearing made on its own).

The saddest thing in life is wasted talent

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Thanks Mike, Ranger & Adallak,

Back from under my caddy. Well if it is the CV joint I can't see it... The CV boot looks dry; no grease there. All of the folds look fine/normal... Mind you with the front suspension all droopy the boot(s) get all compressed. It really is hard to see/feel anything and based on the really thin stream of grease the hole would be like 1/8"...

Wumping noise worse when it’s hot than cold...

Going to make my poor service rep dizzy driving in circles tomorrow...

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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Good luck at the dealer, I am reasonably sure its the boot, all it needs is a split to start throwing grease and make noise, it might be hard for you to find it, remember the boot rotates so fast that grease flys out at high speed. good luck

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just got the car back from the dealer and Holy Cow did I get awesome service.

The tech manager noted that the sound was hard to hear so he put it on the host and checked out the entire front end... Sure enough... both front hubs were shot... The right one was toast and the left one was going... Apparently the axles had seized in the hubs and they had to cut the nuts off and pound them out :o Not sure I wanted to know that…

In any event the car is fixed... Drives awesome! Even the front end trammeling is gone… :)

I learned that bad hubs start with a little bit of rubbing noises and get progressively worse... They don't need to be going Brrrt Brrt to be toast...

Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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Yes two hubs, and two nuts plus a lot of pounding with the 'ol BFH...

No cost...

Car has 48, 488 miles on it.. I fear my next trip to the dealer won't be for free...

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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both front hubs were shot

Who could think the both hubs went south? :blink: It's the case when "S" test says little if anything about the condition of hubs. Well.. let's remember this case.

Glad the car is fixed for nothing and runs great.

The saddest thing in life is wasted talent

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