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I'm stumped in trying to track down the source of a low speed squeak coming from the frond end. It only happens below 10mph and starts coming to a stop and leaving from a stop. It is definitely wheel speed related.
I pulled both tires even though it seems to be from the driver's side. I looked at all 4 boots and all are dry on the outside. It doesn't do it just spinning the hub with the tires off. The brakes and rotors are in good shape. Both wheel bearings are Timkens. One has 22,000 miles on it and the other has 16,000 miles.
The only things I can't see are the CV joints themselves which have 108,000 miles on them.
Anyone want to throw any guesses out there?

Mark Fahey wrote:I'm stumped in trying to track down the source of a low speed squeak coming from the frond end. It only happens below 10mph and starts coming to a stop and leaving from a stop. It is definitely wheel speed related.
I pulled both tires even though it seems to be from the driver's side. I looked at all 4 boots and all are dry on the outside. It doesn't do it just spinning the hub with the tires off. The brakes and rotors are in good shape. Both wheel bearings are Timkens. One has 22,000 miles on it and the other has 16,000 miles.
The only things I can't see are the CV joints themselves which have 108,000 miles on them.
Anyone want to throw any guesses out there?

Does it do it if you accelerate with the brakes applied to keep the pads in contact with the rotors?

If you are turning a corner coming to a stop and restarting does it still do it? If so, does it change speed with the relative speed of the inner wheel or outer wheel on the turn?

This may isolate it to one side of the car or the other.

Did you check the indicators on the brake pads?
Sometimes you can get metalic build up in a pad or caliper slide/pad squeek from slight looseness with the hub/rotor, which goes usually away if you keep brake pedal pressure

I hadn't thought of that one although when I come up to a stop, the brakes are applied and it still squeaks. I'll pull the calipers and see if I can spot anything that doesn't look right. The pads have less than 30,000 miles on them and looking from the outside, still have plenty of life to them.

I took the brakes apart and aside from the groove on the inner pads being packed with brake dust, everything looked good.
Unfortunately, the squeak is still there. I did do the suggested test of turning and it is more noticeable turning left. It almost sounds like a rubbing sound at very low speed because if I go really slow, you can hear the noise coming and going with the rotation of the wheel.

Check to see if the rotor backing plate is coming into contact with the rotor. This can make a VERY irritating sound. It can be bent into the rotor by mistake when changing rotors if you happen to pull it towards you. The sound resonates annoyingly well.

While the 2000+s don't have a backing plate, John's idea is a good place to check. There is a bracket that is held in place by the hubs where the WSS connection attaches. On the bottom part of it, near the ball joint, is a small piece that sometimes gets bent and rubs against the inside part of the rotor, causing a squeak.

At this point, I'm leaning towards an issue with the caliper. After I put everything back together, I realized that the right caliper did not want to retract so that I could reinstall it whereas the left one easily moved back in.
I'm going to test the caliper again to be sure I wasn't applying the clamp off center and causing the piston to bind. I also realized that the car has to be driven several miles before the noise shows up, possibly indicating that heat plays a part in this.
I put the car up on jack stands last night and put it in gear to see if I could hear where the problem was. Of course, it wouldn't do it under those conditions.

If it was a bearing issue, it may not do it without a load

When you recheck your calipers, use neverseize on the slides and membrane on the pads, that should eliminate that brake possibility

Problem solved. Before taking the brakes back apart, I decided to checke the wheel bearing torques and was very surprised that the right front one was somewhere under 100 ft. lbs.
I know the tech specs here say 118 ft. lbs. but I could swear that the instructions that came with the Timkens said 175 ft. lbs. I believe this was discussed in the old forum but if it was, I can't find it. At any rate, I set the torque at 118 ft. lbs and the noise is gone.
Does anyone remember if the Timkens have a different torque value than the factory specs?