Front end creak, squeek, chirp, skritch
 

All those sounds and a couple more. Weirdest sounds I've ever heard out of an auto. They come and go but are getting more frequent. The sounds are very irregular except that some or all are related to wheel rotation. Some of them will speed up and slow down with wheel speed. Some of the skritching sounds remind me of a loose piece of thick wire being jostled around and scraping things.

The sounds seemed to come from the right at first but now seem to be in the middle and spread out.

Last time I filled up they went away completely until I got down to a half tank or so.

I've inspected brake pads and anything I could see or yank on. Nothing looks suspicious.

I've been meaning to check into lubrication. I wonder what my two manuals say.

Anybody dealt with something like this?

Kerry

Anything loose in the front trunk? How are the wheel bearings? Front suspension bushings? just throwing ideas out..

Could even be a rear bearing, it's often hard to tell. Jack each wheel and try to spinning it. Àlso grab the wheel at 12 o`clock and push/pull to see if loose. All wheel bearings are grease packed. Also check your CVs and the trans.

Could be front rubber suspension bushings are worn to the point the torsion bars are scraping on the inside of the A arms.

I've touched on everything, including loose stuff in the trunk, that has been metioned, but the noises are so varied and unpredictable that nothing seems to fit.

Guess there's no substitute for a thorough inspection. I'll have to find the time.

Finally decided it must be a wheel bearing so I checked. Driver's side looks okay but the other side is toast. The outer roller bearing fell apart.

What I don't understand is why there's no sign of an inner roller bearing or race on the "bad" side. There's only seal in the rotor holding in what I can only describe as a "plain" one piece bearing that slides snuggly on the axel.

The "good" side had what I expected: inner and outer roller bearings.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Looks like you will need a new rotor and bearing set.
I would inspect the spindle for damage.
Should be an inner tapered roller bearing and an outer tapered roller bearing. the races are pressed into the rotor/hub assembly.

New races sometimes come with new bearings. Sometimes not.
Inside has a seal and outer has a hub dust cover. Bearing tension is maintained by a nut and a keyed washer.

Duh. I pulled off the seal and found an intact inner roller bearing. So it looks as though the spindle and rotor survived the ordeal. Amazing one bearing could make all that racket.

Now that I've tapped out the races, can someone tell me a good homemade way to put new races in?

BIG!!!! C-clamp a 2x4 and sometimes a 30mm socket helps.

All done. After glancing all around the garage and elsewhere for something the right diameter to drive in the races...it hit me....how about the old races.

So I set the old race on the new race mirror image, put a small board on top and tapped in the new race a little ways. It doesn't go far before the old race starts to go in and get stuck. So I pull the old race out and turn it over. This allows it to go in further before it gets stuck, and also it gives a lip where the bottom diameter of the old race is slightly smaller than where it butts against the new race. Once the new race is nearly seated you can turn the rotor over and tap out the old race by putting screwdriver on the lip and tapping it with a hammer, being careful not to scratch the new race. Then the new race can be tapped alternately on each side with a screwdriver the last little bit. It sounds a little complicated in words but there's nothing to it in deed.

Oh, and I did the bake the rotor, freeze the races routine first.

Thanks to everyone for ideas.

Kerry