Squeak / Knock from front wheel

Squeak / Knock from front wheel

Author
Discussion

M1C

Original Poster:

1,891 posts

118 months

Thursday 5th January 2023
quotequote all
Hi all, got a bit of a puzzling issue. Well, at least to me.

I recently bought a 2008 C-Max Zetec 1.6 Petrol.

I've noticed a few days into ownership that it has a squeak/scrape/knock from the front OS wheel. I assumed it was going to need brake pads (at least) as it felt to me like a brake scrape/knock sound - but i've had it looked at by my local garage (who are usually great) and no, the brakes all round are fine. To be fair, now that they've said this, i've realised that the braking is consistent, no vibes, shuddering or scraping etc (when braking)

They couldn't find / determine anything else from a good look at everything underneath and also from quick drive.

The symptoms are a squeak / scrape from the front OS wheel area, sometimes accompanied by a knock which happens at the same speed as the wheel is turning. It does this weather in gear, or not. It seems to lessen sometimes and hardly be noticeable (typically when the garage had a drive with me) but other times it's really noticeable and just feels like something is clearly wrong.

When you are going slow when parking etc, you get a high pitched squeaky / creaky sound. However when travelling it's more of a knock knock knock (but it's the same thing, just speeds up, kinda thing)

The sound (and slight feeling through the pedals and steering) tells me it's clearly from the OS front wheel area. The NS front doesn't do it. Sometimes it's embarrassingly loud even from inside...and others it doesn't do it much at all. Very strange.

I'd really like to get to the bottom of it as something is clearly not right.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Many thanks.

PisstNBroke

1,091 posts

231 months

sherman

13,834 posts

222 months

Sunday 8th January 2023
quotequote all
Its most likely the shock absorber.
Go out and bounce the front of the car on both sides.
The good side will rebound nicely. The bad shock will probably hit the stops and slowly come back up.
Suprised your garage didnt spot this if they took the wheel off to look at the brakes.