this car has been absolutely trouble-free since we bought it, but today it's got me worried.

for a few weeks, the right rear side of the car has exhibited an occasional "wiggle," usually at freeway speeds. at first i thought it wasn't balanced, but the guys a scwhab do a good job, and it's only an occasional wobble, like it's bouncing up and down. shakes the car real good too.

now, as of yesterday, there's a weird squeak or squeal from the right rear. it's only audible at very slow speeds, such as slowing to a stop, turning into the driveway, etc. it doesn't sound like brake squeal, it's much more evil sounding. but definitely coming from the tire/wheel area.

so what's going on here? bushings, bearings? i'm not real technically savvy, but i can take the wheel off and take a look in there, if someone wants to give me an idea of what to look for.

~a

rear trailing arm bushings!

will the absence of good bushings cause the thing to wobble like that? tell me where to look so i can see if they're shot...

~a

Jack the car up on that side and grab the wheel and see if you can move it in any direction. Mine was way gone and the whole wheel moved in and out.

Yep, like Scott said.

ok, yanked the wheel off. i don't know where the bushings are, so i can't check their condition. but the wheel, when off the ground, does not move in and out. no movement at all, but i did notice something odd. the caliper is clamped down on the rotor. the hub turns ok, but is encountering a lot of resistance. looks like the caliper is out of adjustment or something. e-brake is disengaged.

~a

I'm tied up tomorrow.....Rainbonnet...AX & all, but next weekend you can bring it over & see iff'n we can finger out what's up.
It may be that your venting distance is set wrong.

Let JP take a look at it.. Oh.. leave the wheel tire ON after jacking it up to check the control arm bushings. It may be a bad wheel bearing if the rotor is hanging up on the caliper...or it could be a stuck piston in the caliper.


B

Warped rotor?

-Rusty

Could be... but it would be warped from a sticking piston heating it up.


B

keep in mind i know very little about the mechanics of these cars, but what you're saying sounds like what's going on. no wheel play when it's up in the air. with the wheel off, i see the pad rubbing the rotor, which could be warped i suppose, there's evidence of less-than-even wear.

You would feel a warped rotor in your foot under braking. It would vibrate the brake pedal.


B

hm... no vibration that i can feel. just put the wheel back on. it turns, but not freely. something's definitely causing the caliper to bit down a bit.

~a

Also consider the CV joint. If it were drying out it would cause some of these problems. Look on the side where the axle goes into the arm for either a lot of grease, or no grease and possible missing rubber boot. Do the same for the tranny side as well. For the bushing, if when the car is onthe ground with you lookng from the back you see that your wheel is leaning in or out a lot, then there you go. Mine had that problem. I hope your wheel bearings are fine as they suck to replace.

will do, i'll pm you. thanks.

~a

update: it was the caliper, outside piston had crapped out. looks like the outer piston was putting no pressure on the rotor, so the inner piston and pad were doing all the work and had ground the pad down to nothing, hence the evil squeal.

got a new caliper from kelly thorston (echocanyons), though, for a super price. thanks again kelly.

jp, we'll put this thing on when i get pads, maybe next week sometime.

~a