For a while now, ive been living with this really annoying whistle noise coming from the rear driver side of the car. it's not even a whistle, it's almost like there's a gap somewhere in the door/trim/something outside the car because it sounds like the noise you get when you blow over the top of an opened bottle.

any idea's what it could be? i did a quick search for it but came up with nothing, and it's kinda hard to see what it is while your going 60mph and you have the radio turned up as loud as it can go so you can try and drive without going nuts.

 

Its wind lol

The edges of your door have a weather stripping, it's rubber. It seals the door to the frame. Check it. Make sure there is no cracks and it fits right.

 

well, after i posted this it went away, for a while. recently (day or so) it's been coming back.

so with a passenger in the car, i opened the windows- and drove around town at 30mph. it didnt do it untill i went to park the car. my uncle (passenger) recognized the sound once he heard it, saying his bike does it once in a while, and said it's common for disc brakes is it?

i know it is the brakes because he had me hold my foot just barely on the brake pedal (i can push it down maybe 1/2" before it engages) and the sound went away, and anytime it does it, if i push just that little bit on the brake pedal, it goes away.

so my question now is, how can i adjust the brake pedal, because right now driving with my left foot on the brake and right on the gas isnt fun (or easy), and i can push it down that much with the cruise on without having it cancel it...

i just found this out, so i havent searched yet, but im on my way now to look for what i can do...


*edit* found out how to do it on the webtech- i guess i know what im doin tommarrow.

 

don't adjust the pedal, you'll wear your breaks and rotors down, it will be expensive. you need to put some antisqueek compound on the calipers, and make sure you still have meat on the inside pads

 

Yeah, my car does this occasionally as well. Check your left rear wheel bearing/hub. And just to confirm that it is in the rear of the car, you can yank up the emergency brake as you drive just a bit and it will probably go away too.

What happens is the bearing wears out, allowing the wheel to cock slightly sideways in realtion to the caliper, and the rotor rubs on the pads just a bit, making a sqeak. As soon as you apply the brakes, the caliper piston clamps the pads on the rotor and straightens the wheel up so the noise goes away. Even a very little amount of free play in the bearing will cause this problem

All you need to do is jack up the car (with chocks around the wheels because your emergency brake will need to be dis-engaged), slide a jackstand under it for safety (if you like). Then grab the wheel on the top and bottom and try to push and pull on it. So push on the top while you pull on the bottom if you know what I am saying. Do this very maticulously to feel for bearing play. And spin the wheel about a 1/4 turn and repeat at least 4 times. If there is ANY little bit of movement back and forth, you will need a new hub, which are about 65 bucks at autozone.

Good luck with it man, I changed my hub and very rarely does the noise come back. Although the noise you are getting could be from something else, this would be my first guess.

 

thats what i first thought to, was maybe the wheel wasnt alligned on the hub right, or some of the lugs were loose...i havent tried to wiggle the wheel yet (it's raining here now) but...

i was still going by my guess of the pedal being wrong...and i did get some numbers that were way off of what webtech says in the "adjustment" part of the conventional brake system.

for the clearence of the stop lamp switch and pedal should be .039in, i have an even 1 inch of room before the lamps go on.

the free play of the brake pedal is good, within what it should be,

and for the pedal stroke with 110lbs of pressure should be 1.776 in, i got almost 2.5"


now i'm still going to try and see if the wheel hub does need replacing, but should i correct those numbers to within the factory spec? i mean, like i said when i push the pedal down it goes away, and your only supposed to have about 1/32" of an inch free play before the brake light comes on, and i have 1 inch....do you think that might be a problem too?

 

I doubt that is the problem man.

Check for bearing free play.

 

man, everytime i got a chance to check for bearing play, it started to rain, but today i finally got to check...

and there was none in the rear, on both sides. and i know it's in the rear, because the noise goes away when i pull the parking brake up 3 clicks. but i mean there is no play at all in the tires. it's even more solid then i thought it would be.

so what could it be?

the rotors and brakes were brand new when i bought the car in april. but i never really did the "break in" stuff on them. do you think i could have warped them/one of them? i'm not going to adjust the pedal since it does go away with the parking brake too.

i plan(ned) on replacing the rotors with drilled and slotted ones, but didnt have the money. but now that i know it's not the bearing, and the noise doesnt go away, do you think i should?

and i'm really new to cars, but how exactly do i check the brake pad just to see?