mikep01

my left front wheel bearing was bad enough that when you turned ther rotor would rub against the caliper bracket.( sounded like the pad backing plate was hitting the rotor.) if you have to turn your radio up to get over the noise its time to change the bearing. mine had 58k

dopplerjeff5000

Thanks for the comments.

It turned out to be bad tires. I bought the cheapest tires available from Belle Tire about 15 months ago and rotated them about 3 times in 25 k miles. I guess this is partially my fault but I figured the tires would hold up a little better than this.

Grizzly old man

A few years ago now we bought an '06 HHR. It had new tires on it and just shy of 150,000 miles on it. The folks who traded it in were pretty sure the whole front end was going to fall off. Rather than just have it fixed they got a new vehicle.

The dealer installed new rotors and pads and everything seemed fine when we bought it.

By the next spring I had already replaced the sway bar bushings and outer tie rod ends trying to find the source of the creaks, groans, clumps, and bumps I was hearing. There was nothing wrong with the outer tie rod ends so I replaced the inner tie rod ends {that were also just fine} then went on to do the brake rotors and pads then the sway bar links and finally the struts I threw in a set of front wheel bearings just to have a clean sweep of the entire front end. The struts and wheel bearings seem to have finally brought silence to the front end. The car now has a tad over 180,000 miles on it so it was also time for new tires again.

I'm sure glad I got the lifetime alignment deal at Firestone too.

Now it seems the rack and pinion might need to be replaced.

I've been doing most of the work myself {I don't have an alignment rack anymore so have to hire that done} so except for a few tools I needed to buy the only expense has been parts. I did buy an electric impact wrench and a set of SAE/METRIC deep well sockets and extensions for the impact wrench.

I still have to break some of the nuts loose with the big breaker bar but the impact has been a lifesaver on most of this stuff. I also bought a 'click' torque wrench to replace the old needle and scale one. I don't know if the new one is anymore accurate or not but it is prettier and simple to use.

I was convinced that the inner tie rods needed a special tool so I bought one of those too. That turned out to be a good deal because since then either I or my younger brother have use it several times to change inner tie rods on our own cars and to help out some of our friends and relatives.

When I changed the bushings on the sway bar I had no problem getting the nuts off the sway bar links. Of course I only needed to remove the bottom ones. When it came time to remove the links again to replace the struts I could not budge any of the nuts. I ended up using a cut off wheel on the angle grinder.

The original sway bar links were probably just fine, I just couldn't get the nuts to turn so I destroyed good parts because of that.

The top bearings in the struts are probably all that is wrong with the old ones. I thought about just replacing that part but the cost for total replacement was not that much more than just the top bearing. I went with quick struts. I do have a set of coil spring compressors but I have always been a little leery of using them. Not having to compress the spring to take it apart was worth the extra money anyway.

donbrew

What's this got to do with thread title?

firemangeorge

What? You mean we can't just change the subject right in the middle?
Heck, my wife does that all the time. ( and I usually don't answer her either)

donbrew

Does yours swear that you're the one that changed the subject?

red3737

Thanks, good information.

gmzimmer

I just noticed what i will call a 'rubbing' noise like something interfering with front end wheel rotation (like a playing card inthe spokes of a bike wheel for those of you old enough to remember that!) Came out of nowhere today. It is louder and increases in frequency at higher speeds. I've inspected the front end and there are no foreign objects or debris present. I have about 43K on my 2007 LT2 and have not had the brakes or Fr. bearings replaced. I'm about 200 miles away from home and don't have any tools, resources or known/friendly local mechanics. Thanks for any direction.

donbrew

Only when rolling? Then check the brake pads first, second the bearing. And adjust the rear brakes regularly, if the parking brake pulls up more than 3 clicks with a moderate pull they need it.

I had a tomato case scooter.

WarStoke

ok i have a noise coming from my passenger side not sure if front or rear but when i first get int the car in the morning and i go slow there is a rubbing high-pitch noise but it goes away if i push on the breaks a bit and/or get up to speed also hear it from time to time when im in a drive through or some where else driving at extremely low speeds

oh yeah its a 2011 hhr lt 2.2l auto