03LexIS300

Ok, so to start off I have a 2003 Lexus IS300 MSM and 5 speed. My drivers front wheel has been squeaking since I bought the car. When I bought it the drivers front wheel was making the thump thump thump noise, so I replaced the wheel bearing and wheel seal as I am an auto mechanic and can get parts at discount and do the work myself, the wheel bearing fixed the thumping noise. When I bought the car the front rotors were warped, the rear had cross drilled so I bought cross drilled and slotted for the front and replaced the brake pads, the car has new sway bar endlinks. After all of that the front left wheel was still squeaking like the caliper was not releasing all the way from the pads and still had a slight "drag" on the wheel and the pads hitting the rotor. So yesterday i decided to replace the caliper and brake hose, as I was thinking either the caliper is sticking or the old brake hose had maybe collapsed in the middle causing it to stick. After all this the squeaking noise is still there. The noise seems to go away when i turn sharply to the right, but to the left and straight the squeaking noise is there. I am dumbfounded as to what this issue could be so any help would be much appreciated. Also I might add the tie rods are tight, the ball joints are tight, the whole suspension is tight. The only thing I can think of right off is I need an alignment because I put Eibach Sportline 1.4" lowering springs on it, but that shouldnt be causing my problem. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

03LexIS300

Also I will add I am new to this forum. Some info about my car. 2003 Lexus IS300 MSM 5 Speed 102K miles. It has Eibach Sportline 1.4" lowering springs, cross drilled rotors on rear, cross drilled and slotted on the front, steel braided brake lines, k & n typhoon cai, megan racing axleback exhaust, resignator is cut out with straight pipe welded in, ralco rz short shifter, and 5% tint all the way around, nothing exotic, but just some tasteful mods. So hello fellow club lexus members!!

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iTrader: (1)

You might have to grind the rotor shield plate thing, that gets warped sometimes and rubs on the rotors. A way to find the squeek is to take off the rotors and look and see if there is anythign that looks like it was rubbing. I did mine and i could clearly see that the bottom part of the shield was rubbing on my rotors because everything was all dusty except the part that was rubbing was all shiny... hope that helps, wish i would have taken pictures to show you better.

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iTrader: (1)

Oh I have drilled & slotted rotors (front & rear) too because my front rotors were also warped.

03LexIS300

I'll check it out. The weirdest thing with my squeaking is it doesn't do it right away when I start driving it, it starts squeaking when the car gets warmed up it seems like. When I apply the brakes in normal stopping the noise goes away completely, but when I let off the brakes it comes right back, and the noise goes away when I turn the wheel sharply to the right.

03LexIS300

I checked the shield and that is not it, I noticed going down the road with my head out the window that the drivers side wheel looked a little wobbly going down the road, so I am thinking the hub is shot, and I am going to have to replace that whole spindle assembly, which will be no difficulty for me as I had an 04 Onyx Black IS300 E-shift and let a former friend drive it and needless to say he totaled it, but luckily I have lots of parts and that is one part I have, also if any of you out there need parts send me a message I may have what you are looking for. I know the question is coming so I will go ahead and answer it yes the lug nuts are tight on my wheel lol.

03LexIS300

I swapped out that whole left side hub, it is now fixed, to verify what I was thinking I left the brake caliper braket on and put two lug nuts on two lug studs to hold the rotor flush with the hub and spun it by hand and could see the distance between the rotor and the caliper bracket weaving in and out confirming it was bent, I did this same test on the new hub I put on to confirm it was straight and as I thought straight as an arrow and no more squeaking noise! Thank god! So if anyone else experiences what I did, hope this thread can help you figure out whats wrong. Also the good news is my whole left front is basically new lol.

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iTrader: (1)

So the rotor was bent? What was weaving? Have a video by any chance?

03LexIS300

I don't have a video but I could easily get one tomorrow as I have the old assembly laying at my shop and a spare rotor that would fit on it, but basically the part that i believe it bent is the hub that your rotor slides onto where the lug studs are, the rotor is fine and completely straight.

03LexIS300

If you look at part number 2, it is pressed into the wheel bearing, if someone hit a curb, or jumped a jump or something that would be the first thing to give. This is my theory as I have done nothing to damage anything on the car, havent hit any curbs or jumped it and I take really good care of it. My car has never been in an accident and has all of the original body panels, so that rules out that possibility too of how it got bent.

03LexIS300

http://www.mylexparts.com/partlocato...layCatalogid=0


Sorry the image wouldn't show up above, so heres the link its part number two, image is all the way at the bottom

03LexIS300

So basically if part number two is bent it would cause the rotor to set like this "/" on that part where as it need to set straight like this "l", so each revolution of the wheel that rotor was hitting the brake pads the wrong way causing the squeak, or the wheel bearing itself was squeaking, not sure which yet, but I believe it was the brakes because when I hit the brakes the noise would go away. Also with that part being bent it would side load that wheel bearing and had I lived with the squeak and not stopped it I would have been putting wheel bearings in that left front every couple thousand miles. Basically it would be like chewing dip, stick it in and spit it out soon after haha