High Pitched Squealing When turning

[SteveCM]

Hi-
Another problem that's been going on for a while now. I was driving the family home from Cape Cod today, and when pulling up a stop sign the car made a very loud high pitched squealing. The wheel was just off center, almost straight. But if I moved the wheel in other direction, the squeal stopped. It happened again picking up speed, and it seems to be a revolutionary noise (i.e. squeal, pause, squeal but fast) and when going faster, its a faster noise and vise versa. Other times, I've heard this noise after turning the wheel left, and turning straight stopped it.

What do you think? Could this be a wheel bearing? U-Joint? Powering steering pump (fluid OK)? Something else I should check out?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, this scared all the passengers!
Steve

 

[srk22]

Sounds like a steering pump issue. Start by checking your belt/tensioner and make sure its not slipping. The belt/tensioner is cheap to replace. Then go on to diagnose the pump.

 

[SteveCM]

Sounds like a steering pump issue. Start by checking your belt/tensioner and make sure its not slipping. The belt/tensioner is cheap to replace. Then go on to diagnose the pump.

The belt is OK, and if the pump were failing wouldn't it be hard to turn the wheel and/or leak fluids?

Steve

 

[srk22]

It could still be the pump...A bearing might be bad which would not show up as a leak.

I would still look at other sources before the pump, most squeals on my cars were due to a bad tensioner.

 

[SteveCM]

Wow, been so busy I haven't had any time to take care of my truck. Sick parents, dog got diagnosed with cancer...a lot going on. Anyways, I checked all the tensioners, pump, etc and everything looked good--except one thing. A hose was touching the belt and a hole was almost burned through it. Is it possible this caused my squealing, when the belt hits the hose? I fixed it by tying the hose to another pipe, with wire ties. I attached a (crummy camera phone) photo of it.

Steve

 

[SteveCM]

As an update to this thread, the squealing was not the belt/hose (pictured above). I finally nailed it down to the driver side wheel, and took off the wheel today. When I thought I had new brakes put in, it appears only the rear ones were done. The front pads are pretty thin, no? Attached a picture below. Rear pads are great and much thicker, which makes me believe that this noise somehow is just brakes. Going back to the shop...

Steve

 

[ORDarksideD]

Were you ever able to figure out the cause of the "squealing"? Was it just brake pads? I'm having a similar problem. Thanks.

 

[SteveCM]

It was a stuck caliper...remember to replace both sides at the same time or it will come back to bite you!

Good luck,
Steve