Well, today i was driving and i finally wanted to take a good look at the scratching sound my car has been making, its coming from the drivers side rear fender, i think the strut is blown, it makes a very loud scratching sound, and if i go over bumps or come out of a turn it is really scratchy, anyone know if this is what it is for sure?

 

I don't think the sound is coming from your struts. If it is your struts blown, then it will not make any noise, your ride would just be bouncy on the freeway. I am pretty sure the sound comes from your wheel bearing. I had the same thing, but it was my rear wheel.

You could do this simple test to find out, Put your car on a jack stand and try to jiggle your tire on these 2 positions:

1. place your hand on position "3 o'clock" and "9 o'clock" and jiggle the tire.
if the tire moves (in short jerky movement), than it's your tie rod is bad.

2. place your hand on position "12 o'clock" and "6 o'clock" and jiggle the tire.
if the tire moves (in short jerky movement), then it is your wheel bearing.

If it is your wheel bearing, then you better get it fixed right away, before the bearing starts eating the hub assembly. It happened to my car. I had to replace the hub assy.

I got all the parts from Carson Toyota (CL vendors).
Hub assy, 1 bearing, and 2 oil seals, all for $ 318.26.
Call Luis Salazar, he will take care of you

Good luck!

 

Ive got the same problem. I was hoping it was just a worn brake. Wheel bearings are so expensive.

 

Yes it is expensive, but it's better safe than sorry, you need to check it.
You don't want to have your wheel comes off.

there's a lock nut that has a cotter pin in it to hold the whole assembly (brake disk & wheel) stay in place, see the image below:



Mine was very loose, because of the wheel vibration - thank God the cotter pin was intact, otherwise it would had been a disaster.

If it is a worn brakes, then it will make noise when you press the pedal and you will notice how deep it is (than normal) you have to press the brake's pedal.

How many miles do you have on your SC?

 

Sounds like your damper is blown. I had the same problem. Everytime when I went over bumps the scratching noise was there. Otherwise it was fine.
To be sure it is your damper, check if it's leaking. Mine was.

 

how do i check that?


and Maeve i will try that right now, back in a little bit with my findings.

 

There are my results

 

Well, you have to get underneath the car. Check all 4 dampers. The blown one will be dirtier (oil film covered with dust) than the other ones.

Kinda looks like this:

 

alright, i have the wheel off right now, the damper looks very clean so i think thats fine, ill look at the other in a minute, but how could i go about checking if its the wheel bearing? Since i took the wheel off, when i spin the assembley, it doesnt make the scratching sound.

 

Try taking the wheel off and rotate to the rotor to see if it makes the same sound. Maybe possible loose brake dust shield or low brake pads?

 

Yeah i did that earlier and the weird thing is, IT DIDNT MAKE THE SOUND, it was extremely quiet, i'll post some pics i took earlier, wheel is back on, i drove it earlier, it makes the noise still while driving it but it doesnt effect the performance or anything, can you point out what im supposed to look at?





Sorry for all the questions, still learning all i can about my car. <3 ClubLexus

 

The brake dust shield looks ok in the pics. Its the piece that goes around/behind the rotor in the 3rd pic. Just try wiggling it to see if it makes any sounds.

When you removed the wheel from the hub there is less stress on the assembly so it may possibly be the wheel bearings as someone mentioned earlier. The wheel was not touching or hitting any part of the suspension correct? Notice any irregular wear on your tires or fender lining?

 

New Pics! From a good camera, the dust shield made no sounds, the only signs of wear i found are here in these pics,

First, that is the underside of the brake dust shield, found some wear there,


This is the caliper, some wear but didnt look like much at all,


Bearing


Better Pics of Whole Thing

 

Vortes,

I just watched your video. I had that noise, too. Because of that I replaced my brake pads (it was worn out anyways). This was back in February when the weather was cold. When the weather got hotter, the noise came back. I was still thinking it was just dust on the brake pads. I also checked/cleaned my parking brakes. There was no noise in the morning, but sometimes the same noise came back in the afternoon.

I didn't bother for the next 7000 miles until 2 weeks ago. It started to make "woo ... woo ... woo" sound. I jacked it up and did the simple test that I had mentioned on the my previous post. That's when I found out that the wheel and the disk brake were already moving back and forth when I was wiggling the wheel.

Took my car to the mechanic and he told me probably the hub assy was already eaten out by the bearing (and he was right, we found out after he took everything apart). I think the wheel bearing got worn out because of the the oil seal went bad and there was no lubricant (grease) and that also made the dust got into the bearing.

 

so, how much does that cost to get fixed? or how much did it cost you?