Need help: squeak/whine somewhere in the front wheel

[romankasp]

Hi, I have a question regarding my 2005 Vue AWD V6. Maybe someone already had this issue and can help. I'm having a very hard time finding the source of a very nasty noise like a squeak/whine coming from the front. It's a relatively high-pitched whine like "eeee-eeee-eeee-eeee'' etc., but not a very high-pitched squeak usually made by belts. It's definitely not a belt because it doesn't depend on RPMs and it's impossible to get it on a stopped car. It's something in the wheels but I can't understand what it can be. I recently changed my front brakes & rear drums, but to my sheer disappointment it didn't go away. It only appears when the car is moving and seems to be coming from front right wheel. You can't predict it. Sometimes it starts after you drive for two minutes, sometimes you almost don't hear it at all. When it starts, there's usually nothing you can do to stop it. Pressing the brake pedal doesn't do anything, no matter how hard. So it's definitely not a stuck brake pad or caliper, and anyway, while changing the brakes, I made sure nothing is stuck and all caliper slides work smoothly and without effort. When braking, there's no pulling or weird sounds, so I don't think there's anything wrong with them now. After you come to full stop (or almost full stop) it always stops too. When you resume driving, it usually comes back after you reach about 30 mph or so. And I noticed (but maybe I'm wrong) that if you accelerate fast, it's more likely to appear again sooner, while if accelerating smoothly, it appears later or, in some cases, I even didn't hear it again. I'm out of theories as to what it can be. I made sure all brackets in the brakes are where they should be, not bent, not touching anything. There's no significant play in this wheel to speak about. And anyway, the wheel bearing never makes such a sound, it rather growls or clicks, I had this on my Ford Explorer years ago. Also, the sound doesn't change at all if you turn, so it can't be a bearing, it always makes more/less sound depending on where the steering wheel is turned. I also found out that the ABS cable was lying on the CV joint and rubbing, I re-routed it. But the sound is still there. When slowly crawling in traffic, it doesn't appear. But once you go faster, it can start and then it doesn't go away at all, no matter what you do, until you stop. Makes me so uncomfortable and angry, the car sounds like it's a 30-years old rusty piece of crap falling apart, such an embarrassment. And all this time, it's most likely something simple which I can easily fix as I'm a tech myself. But if I had any idea what it can be! And I really don't want to waste hundreds of $ having a car service company troubleshoot this issue, which can literally take days. So if anybody had something like that, please share your experience. Thank you.

[dws41951]

Did you check the dust shield on the lower inside of the brake rotor. I had a similar situation on my 05. It was rubbing ever so lightly on the rotor.I pried it back with a screw driver and the sound was gone.

[lord_varon]

Roman,

Two things that I would look at. 1. Seeing as you have an AWD.. look at the center support bearing on the rear driveshaft. Although seeing as you are certain that it is coming from the right front, that leads me to my second idea.
2. The intermediate shaft between the transfer case and the right side CV axle. There is a bearing in there. If it is bad, well, there is no replacement intermediate shaft. BUT!!! I have REBUILT one. Go back a ways and look for intermediate shaft bearing repair. I did a full write up with pictures, tools list, and the part number of a perfect fit replacement bearing.
It was surprisingly not that difficult to do once I saw a garage swap in a junkyard intermediate shaft for me. I did it on the ground in about two hours...


John