Brake squeaking / suspension noise

stangs024 · 08-13-2018, 01:29 PM

I took my car in last week to get the brakes looked at because they were starting to squeak pretty bad. I realize this is a normal thing that happens, but I've barely got 3k miles on the car, I use it as my DD and I don't hot rod the car around so it just seemed really early for the brakes to be squeaking like they were, plus I had a suspension noise I wanted to get figured out so I just told them about both issues, two birds one stone blah blah... When I got the car back on Saturday my SA told me (I have a terrible memory so I can't recall his exact words) something along the lines of 'This is a known issue with your car, and GM hasn't quite figured out the exact cause of it so for now what we did was just basically clean the brakes (again, he went into more detail about what they cleaned but I can't recall).

I also was hearing a popping/clicking noise around the driver side front wheel, specifically at low speeds (<15 mph) when turning to the right, and only when turning to the right. The noise was likely there at higher speeds as well but I just couldn't hear it due to road noise or my exhaust or whatever. So my SA told me this was also a "known issue," the cause of which was my sway bar bolts. I don't know if they were just loose or what, but he said they replaced the bolts and I should be good to go. I remember him saying something about they had the wrong bolts, and he installed the right ones. Which doesn't really make sense to me now but at the time I didn't think anything of it.

I got the car back, everything seemed fine I didn't hear any brake noise or suspension noise like I did before. Then yesterday as I was turning into my parking lot I hear the suspension noise again, louder and almost like a crunching sound this time, it didn't sound good. And then sure enough this morning as I'm driving to work the brake squeak is back, faint but there.

I've taken good care of my car and it just seems super early to be dealing with squeaking like this. Add to that the crunching/clicking/popping suspension noise which now sounds worse than it did before it was "fixed."

I'm gonna have to take the car back in, obviously it's still under warranty which is good. But I'm wondering if either of these issues are familiar to anyone else, and if so have you found a solution? If not, thoughts on what is causing these noises?

torqueaddict · 08-13-2018, 01:57 PM

Try another dealer. 9/10 times in my experience over the years dealing with this issue on past cars, changing the brake pads usually takes care of it. I'm not totally sold on this is normal for all these cars. That sounds like someone trying to find a cop-out.

I'm at ~4500 miles and have no squeak whatsoever. If it develops later on and happens too often, I'll have the pads changed out.

As for the suspension noise, they are correct in that there is known issue with the swaybar bolts, but your car should have come with the revised bolts from factory. And from what I understand, the noise occurs over bumps, not while turning. What you're describing sounds like a bad CV joint. If the boot came loose and all the grease came out, the joint will fail prematurely. The dealer would have easily picked up on that though. It could also be a bad bearing, but you should hear something while driving.

stangs024 · 08-14-2018, 08:03 PM

One thing I've noticed is the clicking noise happens with the revolution of the wheel, similar to what you'd hear if you had something stuck to the bottom of the tire for example. The tire is clean, and I can't see anything out of the ordinary like debris or something. I'm just waiting on a loaner car at this point, there's like a week and a half wait so I can't even take it in to the dealer yet.

08-13-2018, 01:29 PM	#1
stangs024 Drives: 2018 camaro ss Join Date: Jun 2018 Location: Dallas Posts: 36	Brake squeaking / suspension noise I took my car in last week to get the brakes looked at because they were starting to squeak pretty bad. I realize this is a normal thing that happens, but I've barely got 3k miles on the car, I use it as my DD and I don't hot rod the car around so it just seemed really early for the brakes to be squeaking like they were, plus I had a suspension noise I wanted to get figured out so I just told them about both issues, two birds one stone blah blah... When I got the car back on Saturday my SA told me (I have a terrible memory so I can't recall his exact words) something along the lines of 'This is a known issue with your car, and GM hasn't quite figured out the exact cause of it so for now what we did was just basically clean the brakes (again, he went into more detail about what they cleaned but I can't recall). I also was hearing a popping/clicking noise around the driver side front wheel, specifically at low speeds (<15 mph) when turning to the right, and only when turning to the right. The noise was likely there at higher speeds as well but I just couldn't hear it due to road noise or my exhaust or whatever. So my SA told me this was also a "known issue," the cause of which was my sway bar bolts. I don't know if they were just loose or what, but he said they replaced the bolts and I should be good to go. I remember him saying something about they had the wrong bolts, and he installed the right ones. Which doesn't really make sense to me now but at the time I didn't think anything of it. I got the car back, everything seemed fine I didn't hear any brake noise or suspension noise like I did before. Then yesterday as I was turning into my parking lot I hear the suspension noise again, louder and almost like a crunching sound this time, it didn't sound good. And then sure enough this morning as I'm driving to work the brake squeak is back, faint but there. I've taken good care of my car and it just seems super early to be dealing with squeaking like this. Add to that the crunching/clicking/popping suspension noise which now sounds worse than it did before it was "fixed." I'm gonna have to take the car back in, obviously it's still under warranty which is good. But I'm wondering if either of these issues are familiar to anyone else, and if so have you found a solution? If not, thoughts on what is causing these noises?

08-13-2018, 01:57 PM	#2
torqueaddict Drives: Tesla M3 LR-AWD [Former 1SS owner] Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Miami Posts: 950	Try another dealer. 9/10 times in my experience over the years dealing with this issue on past cars, changing the brake pads usually takes care of it. I'm not totally sold on this is normal for all these cars. That sounds like someone trying to find a cop-out. I'm at ~4500 miles and have no squeak whatsoever. If it develops later on and happens too often, I'll have the pads changed out. As for the suspension noise, they are correct in that there is known issue with the swaybar bolts, but your car should have come with the revised bolts from factory. And from what I understand, the noise occurs over bumps, not while turning. What you're describing sounds like a bad CV joint. If the boot came loose and all the grease came out, the joint will fail prematurely. The dealer would have easily picked up on that though. It could also be a bad bearing, but you should hear something while driving. Last edited by torqueaddict; 08-13-2018 at 07:47 PM.

08-14-2018, 08:03 PM	#3
stangs024 Drives: 2018 camaro ss Join Date: Jun 2018 Location: Dallas Posts: 36	One thing I've noticed is the clicking noise happens with the revolution of the wheel, similar to what you'd hear if you had something stuck to the bottom of the tire for example. The tire is clean, and I can't see anything out of the ordinary like debris or something. I'm just waiting on a loaner car at this point, there's like a week and a half wait so I can't even take it in to the dealer yet.

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