I've taken my car ('07 Touring, 41k mi.) to both a Z mechanic and the dealership to try to diagnose an issue and I'm still scratching my head. There is a metallic squeal/rubbing sound when I take a hard right at ~15+ mph, like in a parking garage. Turning left I hear nothing and when moving at speed I hear nothing...

From my experience with wheel bearings, at speed you can typically hear a wobble or humming when they are going out by jerking the wheel left or right. Not having experienced the current sound before, I took it to a Z shop in Austin and was told the wheel bearings were good and there was no play in the suspension so it was likely a brake pad... I waited a few weeks and took the car into the dealership for their opinion and again, the car checked out and I was told the brake pads were about half worn. So I'm still stuck with this horrible noise when turning and have no idea what is wrong!

Other notes:
-The brake pads make no noise when stopping, no wobble, etc. No bad pedal feel at all. I did hear some squeaking last winter but I attributed it to the cold weather.
-There is no shaking or wobbling in the steering wheel or pedals on the highway either
-Tires are new with under 5k miles and the sound is not a squealing, its more metallic sounding than a squeal
-Alignment is within spec, and was done ~2 months ago, aside from there being slightly more negative camber on the front passenger wheel -- I was told by the dealer this is common as the upper control arms wear in and they cannot adjust it. They also said it was not enough negative camber to worry about it yet.

I was told by both the dealer and the Z mechanic to not worry about the sound unless it gets any worse or I start feeling a wobble...what has been your experience with this type of behavior?

Thanks,

-RDR

 

Have you checked your control arm bushings?

 

Possibly your upper ball joint(s) are failing on mentioned side or maybe your stabilizer link. I'd check the ball joint out first and then check out the link.

 

I was under the car with the first mechanic and we didn't see any issues, but I'll take a closer look at the control arm bushings to be sure they're in good shape. What behavior is expected when they begin to fail (crack/split/etc)?

Thanks!

-RDR

 

I'm not sure if a visual inspection will tell me much given I've had a Z mechanic and the dealer inspect everything, but I'll go over the suspension joints again this weekend just to be sure.

Thanks again!

-RDR

 

I'm actually having a similar issue, but with lefts. I took it to a performance shop and their diagnosis makes a lot of sense - bad bearing in the rear which is allowing the whole setup to move a bit under load of a hard turn, and the rear rotor dust shield is coming into contact with something and scraping.

Just like you I have no wobble or anything in the ride and have not been able to diagnose for a few months until this. I still need to get the car up to see, but it's an idea.

 

Check the dust shields on the back side of the rotors. I was changing out springs recently and while putting everything back together I must have slightly bent the shield towards the rotor. It would make this metallic squeal but not all the time and it drove me crazy. Sure enough the shield was rubbing on the back side of the rotor.

On another note: My friend had some extended studs installed on his Z by Firestone and they bent his rear rotor. It caused the wheel to wobble but he couldn't feel it, he could only see it. It also caused a rubbing/squealing sound randomly. He replaced the hub and it was fine.

Good luck!

 

You would think the bearing would have to be almost falling apart to move a little.