Car-saavy loungers- please chime in....

[SacredCow]

My 2006 Saturn Ion is making a new noise, and I'd love to have some opinions! I have my suspicions of what it is, but I'll refrain from stating them, lest I taint the objectivity!

Symptoms: When making a RIGHT turn, there's a noise and vibration sort of like you'd hear with an out of balance tire. But when tracking straight, or making a LEFT turn it doesn't seem to be there. It doesn't have to be a particularly hard right turn- anything that throws the weight even slightly to the left side of the car will cause it (the harder the turn, the more pronounced the symptom, and at faster speeds the frequency is increased).

That about covers it. What say you, wise loungers?

[datasuspect]

1. does it pull to the right or left when you take your hands off the wheel?

[SacredCow]

2. No. And the tires are fairly new, for the record. n/t

[HopeHoops]

3. Sounds like the wheel bearings.

That's one you want to have checked pretty quickly. If the bearings suffer catastrophic failure, the wheel can lock up at highway speed. One can assume that is a bad thing.

[SacredCow]

7. bad thing indeed....

this is where I was leaning, but there may be other possibilities.

thanks! :hi:

[mikeytherat]

4. Could be the left front wheel bearing

When you turn right, the pressure is on the left wheel bearing and, if it is bad or heading that way, you will usually hear the noise. I would also, VERY SOON, make sure all the lug nuts/wheel studs are tight, especially on the left front wheel.

mikey_the_rat

[Kali]

5. yep - check lug nuts, bearing

bearings usually squeal a little before they fail, though
other possibilities are brake grabbing or suspension components

[SacredCow]

9. There's no squealing that I'm aware of.

The car has ~60K miles, so I guess it's possible that the brakes need to be checked again.

Thanks for the input!

[SacredCow]

8. This was my thought, too....

and I will check the lugs before I leave work today.

Thanks for the input!

[SacredCow]

6. A few votes for bearings...

which is my #1 suspect. I'm pretty sure the lugs are tight, but I have those stupid plastic wheel covers so I'll make a point to check that before I leave work this afternoon.

As for brake grabbing- maybe. I'm just starting to detect a very slight pulsing in the brake pedal, so it could be time for brake work (just under 60K miles).

I've also had someone suggest that it could be the drive shaft.

[flvegan]

10. While they're checking the bearings, have them check the CV joint.

Boot might be failing, though you really should feel that under acceleration in that car and the car seems too new for a boot to go already.

[SacredCow]

11. Well, with this car- any premature failure really doesn't shock me.

Let's just say that I'm not at all impressed with Saturn's build quality anymore. My 1995 SL-2? Great, dependable transportation. This car is nickel and diming me to death.

[Mugu]

12. Does the noise change when accelerating, coasting, or braking?

[SacredCow]

15. It IS speed-related...

at higher speeds, it's a faster frequency. coasting and braking don't seem to make a difference in the sound.

[jakefrep]

13. Brake sensors, maybe?

I had a Ford Probe that made noises like that when it needed brake work.

[SacredCow]

16. Brakes are on my list....

The car has almost 60K miles, so it's not out of the realm of possibility.

[NoGOPZone]

14. If you have the time and the tools, put the front end of the car on jacks stands

and give each tire a good wiggle, first with your hands at the three and nine o'clock positions, then at twelve and six o'clock. If you notice more free play on the one tire, it's likely the bearing. This will also give you allow you to get a good view of some of the linkage to see if you spot any obvious damage.

[SacredCow]

18. If I have time, I'm going to jack it up tonight and take a look...

and I may just take it to a friend's shop tomorrow and let him give his $0.02.

[ThomWV]

17. CV joint is a good possibility, but also a broken motor mount can do that.

[SacredCow]

19. I'm hoping that it's just bearings....

CV joints and motor mounts and other more costly problems aren't going to make me very happy for a ~3 year old car.

[ThomWV]

21. Its not. Once a bearing starts to go they don't last long at all

Once a wheel bearing starts to go bad you'd be lucky to make it another 20 miles. I've lost lots of them on boat trailers (same bearings) and its a real pain once you spin a set. The point is, however, that if that was the problem you'd have lost the wheel within a day of driving.

[SacredCow]

22. I'll know tomorrow....

And if it's premature wear (my perception of it, anyway) I'll be back on a tirade against GM and Saturn...

For the record, the first two years I owned this car, had it not been under warranty, I would have spent around $1500 on maintenance for all of the things that went wrong (not counting oil changes and such). Really, I've never had a new car give me so much trouble in the first 3 years. Heck, many of my USED cars were better than this.

[SacredCow]

20. Dropping it off tomorrow morning....

Hopefully, by this time tomorrow I'll know the cause, and it won't cost me mega-bucks (but I'm not holding my breath).

I'm about 50% sure that if it's something pretty big, I'm going to make good on my promise to get rid of this piece of junk and go back to Toyotas or VWs. Or maybe a Volvo.

[SacredCow]

23. UPDATE... Shop just called- said the bearings were definitely going bad.

So looks like a couple of C notes worth of work, I guess. Probably something I could do myself, but I just don't have the time.

[swishyfeet]

24. The bearing assembly itself is pretty expensive

Probably $120 or so online. It's really not that dangerous as a previous poster mentioned. Usually wheel bearing noise creeps up on you and it may be a month or two before you even realize it's not regular road noise. They don't fail catastrophically.

If you want to try it yourself, google it. There are answers. The trickiest part is probably getting the big axle nut off - unless you have a big socket set and breaker bar or impact wrench.

[SacredCow]

25. I've gathered that it's an assembly that has to be replaced...

I don't know how long the noise has been there. First off, Louisiana is legendary for crappy roads, and the new tires I got are pretty damn noisy (They grip well, but they're loud).

I've had bearings fail catastrophically once before- on a boat trailer. But they had recently been serviced and I can't be sure that the service wasn't botched somehow.

[Mopar151]

30. GM uses a lot of sealed bearing assemblies

not servicable - and spendy 'cus of the ABS sensor also included.

[SacredCow]

31. Well, I don't have ABS on this car....

and I don't know what the final total of the work will be. I'm preparing myself for up to $350ish or so.

[Kali]

27. wrong

I have had at least 4 instances of "catastrophic" bearing failure. One really was almost catastrophic - as my son was driving on a county highway 40 or 40 mph - front right wheel CAME OFF. He spun out but didn't roll and was ok, but thank god he wasn't going down the big hill at 70 on the interstate.

Others happened on dirt roads so the failure wasn't so critical to personal safety but the failure was there.

[swishyfeet]

28. There's a massive (36mm?) axle nut that holds the bearing and wheel on

This is a modern car. Wheel bearings are a very common problem - and yet wheels are not flying off all over the land. It's possible, but very unlikely.

Who here hasn't had a bad wheel bearing at some time or another? In most cases, we don't even realize the problem for a few months before we finally fix it.

[Kali]

29. only had one come all the way off

not sure what your def. of modern is, it was a year or two ago in a 91 ford van.

others just ground to nothing and got very wobbly/hot and had to be left where they "quit" until fixed, or they would have come off.

[ThomWV]

32. That is very difficult to immagine

I dunno - sounds odd to me. I'm serious abuot this. I had one day in which I lost three sets of bearings while towing a trailer from North Carolina to West Virginia. I saw bearings go from showing no flaws at all to complete failure in less than 10 miles. They are just not the sort of thing that fails gradually. Fortunately they are not particularly expensive and if they did not fail completely - meaning your spindle is clean - then replacing them should be a very easy task. I forewarn you though that in some cases (my Ford diesel truck as an example) the bearings are not replaceable and a full hub has to be bought. So if the bearing go bad in it instead of twenty five bucks for a set of bearings the outlay comes to closer to four hundred for a new hub with them in it. Hope your's isn't that way.

[SacredCow]

33. I think it's between the 2....

There is some kind of bearing assembly that has to be replaced, and I think the price is in the 100 to 150 range.

As for the rest- Perhaps it's dependent on the type of bearing? I really don't know what kind these are (ball, needle, tapered, etc...).

[backwoodsbob]

26. sounds like a bearing