LearnAboutMyCar.Com
Knowledge To Maintain And Repair Your Car

 

Wheel bearings -
If you ever have heard that roaring noise when driving down the road might be a wheel bearing. You changed your worn out tires thinking it would fix the problem. Nope. One way to diagnose if it is even a wheel bearing noise is to drive normally at a constant speed not accelerating or decelerating. Then sway the car left to right slightly and listen for change of noise pitch. If it is a wheel bearing noise then it will change noise pitch when swaying car left to right. Usually 30 -40 mph all you need to hear the noise. And swaying back and forth doesnt mean go into on coming cars just a little to hear the noise difference. Then when you determined it is a wheel bearing you will need to figure out which wheel is it coming from. Generally if you have means to lift the car up you can check this out if not local mechanic can do this for you.

One way to check is spin the wheels in the air while holding you other hand on strut assembly or steering knuckle. You can usually feel the vibration if any on each wheel. Any major vibration you feel will be that exact wheel bearing. So much easier to do this back years ago before I learned this trick I used to lift the car up with it running in gear and try to listen for noise a lot harder and takes longer in my view. Remember wheel bearing noise can misleading from which side of car it is coming from thats why you need to lift it up to reverify. And wheel bearings are costly usually 150- 300 bucks cost not to mention labor. Some are pressed in and need special tools to replace. Consult repair guide if needed.

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Vibration felt while driving I need a alignment to fix this!!
- So many customers come in and lead to believe a alignment will fix the vibration problem. Nothing further from the truth. Lets get this straight, alignment is only for handling and keeping the tires from wearing out prematurely. As for vibration problems lots of things can cause this. One most common is out of balance tire or seperated belt in tire. If the engine is not running right can feel like a vibration problem. I had a customer today that came in for rotation and balance of tires. It was a 2001 ford windstar had like 147,000 miles on it. I first noticed the check engine light on. Upon driving the van it seemed to misfire intermittantly from 25-40 mph. I saw he had one new tire on the front of the van. After reconfirming the problem with the customer I told him he is wasting his money to pay for tire balance since this was not the problem. A engine diagnostic is required for the driveability problem. He denied the work. So no work was done at this point but customer was still satisfied. If it was a tire balance problem the vibration would be felt at a constant speed like 45mph or above. Now a drivetrain problem vibration is when you accelerate only. Possible axles worn out cv shaft or u-joint etc. So lesson today is trying to find the key problem before getting alignment.

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My tires are noisy making a choppy sound when driving-
Lots of reasons can cause premature tire wear. Lack of tire rotation and balancing is normally the most common problem. And proper alignment with front end parts that are tight not worn out. But what if you did all that and still have tire cupping or looks like flat spots on tires that can be causing the chopping noise.
I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is once you start getting a bad cupping or flat sided where in the tires it is more likely not to going to wear even if you fix the main problem. Ok you get the new tires and alignment but whats going to kept it from doing it again? Now we look at your suspension on your vehical. You had the alignment the front end of the vehical was tight right. But what else could it be? How old are you shocks and struts how many miles on them? If they are over 60,000 they can be worn out. If you see leakage from any of the struts or shocks will require replacement. The struts and shocks are designed to cushion the suspension of the vehical not give it the ride height. They are designed to keep your tires flat riding on the road. So when the struts and shocks wear out the tires are not riding flat on the road as much as they are intended. What happens it your tires are not fully contacting the road at all times causing flat spots and cupping on the tires which leads to vibration and lower handling characteristics. Funny story I had to help a friend out by driving his truck. When I got on the highway the truck would feel like it was on air it bounced so much from the shocks being worn out. It felt like it was getting airborne on some bad road bumps. It was also hard to stop even though it had decent brakes worn struts and shocks can reduce braking abilities. Of course this is a worst case scenario I later found out those shocks where original on a 200,000 mile truck. But it is a good example how to notice worn struts and shocks. But most people will not notice right away because the vehical will slowly lose it handling and ride quality over time. Then they wonder why the tires are all cupped up only 10-15,000 miles on them. But most of my customers who get those parts replaced notice right away how much better their car or truck rides like it should from the factory.

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Low Tire Pressure Light-

That annoying yellow light with the exclaimation mark. Most newer cars  have these tire pressure sensors. And by the end of the decade 90 percent of  new cars built  will have tire pressure sensors. If you have this problem dont panic. Make sure your tire pressure is to the exact specs of the car model. You can find this specification on inside of your drivers door. The actual term is tpms  tire pressure monitoring sensor. But I hate to get technical with trying to keep this website simplists terms. These sensors can be real sensitive that even 2-5 pounds under specification can trigger the yellow light. So when you fill up your tires to correct pressure the light will have to be reset or it will automaticly. Some models do it right away and some you have to do a sequence of pressing knobs and buttons to reset tire pressure light. If you have a constant light coming on from the same tire you know you have a leak somewhere like a nail or puncture. Any time your tire is removed from the rim the tire sensor seals have to be replaced. The sensor its self replaces the old tire valve stem. So when you remove it there is a o ring on the back side of ithe sensor has to be replaced.
Some car brands that can tell you exact pressure in each wheel will have to be reset with special tire pressure reset scanner. And if you rotate those tires they will have to be reset too. Usually Ford and Gm models do this. Some rare cases you fix the tire and the light still stays on. That case you could have a bad tire sensor its battery will go bad after a few years. They are getting cheaper but still expect to pay 30 -100 bucks for one if this is the case. Foreign models are more money of course. I even seen some tire pressure sensors on spare tires only on jeeps I have witness this. A common problem with the jeeps grand cherokee has this option the low pressure light will come on and all the tires are fine except the spare tire which had a sensor too. They say the average tire loses 1 lb of pressure a month normally. So after a few years spare tires go low if never checked. Next time you have your car service or worked on always good idea to check spare tire pressure anyway dont want to get a flat with flat spare anyway. I fill most cars at 35 psi some big trucks require more like 50 - 80 psi pounds per square inch. Spare tires usually fill up to 60 psi.

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My car makes a squealing noise in the morning and when I turn on the air conditioning.

 

I hate that noise you can usually hear that noise coming down the street and you know which car is making it.

Most common problem is the drive belt or belts on the engine either worn or out of a adjustment. Most of the time they are worn out. Ways to find out are checking the belts for damage or cracking. Cracking indicates they are worn out and need replacing asap. The cracks can lead to broke belt and a stranded driver. Some times the belt tensioner wears out and cannot keep the belt tight anymore leading to noise and slippage of belt. Way to check tensioner is pull on the belt with your hand and see if the tensioner moves back and forth. A frozen tensioner wont move at all to save your life. A belt tensioner sometimes will come apart sort of speak the housing sits crooked and the pulley from the tensioner will look crooked thus changing the angle of the pulley inline with the other pulleys causing the belt to squeal or slip of the pulleys completely.  Also check the other pulleys on the engine alternator, power steering , water pump make sure there is no play side to side of pulleys. Any play can cause improper alignment of belt.