GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Yay, I get to go back to the shop AGAIN! Will the fun ever end? Man, I hope not, every day is a party when you're stuck upside down in this stupid car!!! if you didn't catch it. Anywho, I figured I'd see what you guys though about this and maybe could pinpoint what crappy part just crapped out on this clunker... Any time the car is in motion, I get a high pitched squeak coming from the front left wheel that is proportional to vehicle speed. It is rather loud, to the point that I can roll down the window and do 45 or so, and despite all the other wind noises and etc. I can still hear it. Speed is the only thing that changes the noise. Braking has no effect on it, nor does the angle in which the wheel is turned at any given moment.At first, I figured it could be the front pads on the left had wore down to the wear indicators, hell - why not - they only have 10,000 miles on them. But it's always been my experience that once you have pads wore down to that point and you apply the brakes, the squeak goes away, and comes back when you let off of the brakes. That doesn't happen here, you can stand on the brake pedal and that wheel will squeak consistently as the car slows down to a stop. What would a crapped out wheel bearing, CV joint, or some other moving part in the vicinity do? I'm not ruling out brakes, as I still have a screwed up caliper on that wheel but I don't know if that is really the problem here. The stops are still straight and the brakes work fine, and there isn't anything pulling the car over to the left when out on the highway like I would expect if the caliper was sticking and had the brake partially applied for that wheel... I dunno.Scheduling an appointment tomorrow, hopefully this junk is covered under warranty... As long as the pads or rotors aren't involved, it should be. If it is covered, I'm sure it will be expensive. I feel sad for GM, Toyota is sending them into the poor house with my car. They don't deserve that! I can't help but feel partially responsible for GM's current financial situation, thanks to this lovely car. I don't know how I can sleep at night!.

I'd guess it's with something with the brakes (like maybe a rock chip stuck in there) or a wheel bearing going bad.Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »I feel sad for GM, Toyota is sending them into the poor house with my car. They don't deserve that! I can't help but feel partially responsible for GM's current financial situation, thanks to this lovely car. I don't know how I can sleep at night!. Sorry, but that really made me laugh. I feel more sorry for you than GM.

Quote, originally posted by BlueCrush »Sorry, but that really made me laugh. I feel more sorry for you than GM. LOL! Well, you gotta have fun when you're in a bad situation, so that was sort of my intention. It's never a bad thing to have a laugh or two. Thanks for the suggestions!

maybe its a warped rotor? When ever I buy brakes they say they have a lifetime warranty, now what the heck does that cover?! Warped maybe but not when they wear out, Id imagine.

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »What would a crapped out wheel bearing, CV joint, or some other moving part in the vicinity do? I'd bet my money on of these, since you said it was constant and didn't go away with the brakes being applied.

Quote, originally posted by scherry2 »I'd bet my money on of these, since you said it was constant and didn't go away with the brakes being applied. i second sherry on this one...considering that i've had more than my fair share of 'brake' experience on my vibe....it doesn't sound like a brake problem to me.

Yeah, scherry2 and Atomb, you guys are on to something I think... Hmm... I wonder if they may have screwed something up when they had the axles pulled as they were replacing the transmission? They must have used the patented CP method of fixing things, if they were having problems getting something removed, they probably just started beating the crap out of the part until they force it into submission. I didn't get a chance to call today, but I will be calling them tomorrow. Wish me luck...

You just have the most wonderful luck with your car CP...

Quote, originally posted by Toasted7 »You just have the most wonderful luck with your car CP... Yeah, I don't know how I ended up with such a fantastic car, I must have really ticked off somebody bad somewhere. lol

It was me!!!!you remember when we were in grade school and you picked on me... then in high school you picked on me some more and i said "watch one day ill pay you back!!!"Well there you go! Sorry, im tired and it sounded good!

[QUOTE=ColonelPanic]What would a crapped out wheel bearing, CV joint, or some other moving part in the vicinity do? I'm not ruling out brakes, as I still have a screwed up caliper on that wheel when a bearing is going it makes more of drowning thuding sound, alot like what a separated tire would sound, A cv joint makes more of a clicking noise when it is going and is normally quite a bit louder when turning a corner civics were notorious for weak cv joints back in the 80's. So here is my guess , You said you had a bad caliper on that wheel so if it is faulty and not working properly when you apply the brakes you putting pressure on the pads and if for some reason the caliper has load remaining on once you have taken your foot off the brake, and it doesn't take much, that set of pads is going to wear way faster than the other side causing one side to hit the squealers first and make that annoying sound. So i would start by getting the caliper looked at first or maybe try blowing the brake pads out with a air, brake dust can can cause some amazing sounds too never the less get your caliper looked at if you know it's bad. everyone needs a good set of binders in there vibe.hope this helpedShane

Cool. Thanks for the tips! I don't have either of the sounds you mentioned coming from that area... Just the squeaks, so who knows... I really need to swap back over to the summer tires this weekend, so I'll see if the parents will let me borrow their garage for a few and have a look, and maybe try to clean things out a bit before it goes to the dealer... I'll keep you guys posted this weekend. Hopefully the dealer will have some time open on Monday to look at the thing.And Mrizzle05 - if you were the guy getting picked on, I don't think I was the one picking on ya because I was also getting picked on by the same punk. It sure sounds like I was a lot like you back then. Let's go find the bad guy, whoever that was, and beat the crap out of him for making our lives hell and for making my car suck. (removed)!

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Let's go find the bad guy, whoever that was, and beat the crap out of him for making our lives hell and for making my car suck. (removed)!I used to get picked on too and my car sucks, so let me know when all of this is going down... I'll be there!

can't wait to find out what it is.they will probably come back with unable to replicate

Quote, originally posted by scherry2 »...unable to replicateThat sounds VERY familiar... the same answer my dealer ALWAYS gives me.

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Yeah, I don't know how I ended up with such a fantastic car, I must have really ticked off somebody bad somewhere. loli hate to beat a dead horse and make assumptions in the same post (there's a joke in there somewhere! )...but i've noticed that many of your troubles have occurred after bringing the car into the dealer to fix the previous problem...maybe i'm just biased as that's how my problems began...and ended when i stopped going back to that dealer!

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »??Why, yes I do drive down gravel roads... But I haven't been down one in over a month.

Ah, gotcha. It has been down quite a few gravel roads in its day, just none really recent. I hope it gets fixed too, I'll find out Monday...

ARRGH! It never fails! The stupid squeak is gone, completely silenced... But I'm still not satisfied. I know this car. This noise will come back in a few months time, and by then, guess what? No warranty! (as of tomorrow, only 15,000 miles remaining and I'm doing ~3K a month.) I guess I'll still have them look at it but I'm running the risk now that I'll have to pay them $$$ to look at it so they can tell me nothing is wrong with it because they're not hearing any noises. At least I won't be wasting my time entirely on Monday's service visit, thanks to the window breaking today...

it's been said once (i think?) and i'll say it again...get rid of it bud....you are a more patient man than i.i would NOT have lasted this long...trade it in...start payments on a car you actually enjoy and remove that additional stress from your life. it just isn't worth it. (my opinion).i can't believe what you've gone through (going through?)!

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic » I'm not ruling out brakes, as I still have a screwed up caliper on that wheel but I don't know if that is really the problem here. I don't know to what extent this caliper is known to be bad, so I can't decide whether to throw a at you or not, but brakes are things you need. It's great if the car can go, but it has to be able to stop. You should probably get that known bad caliper attended to.

I know it isn't worth it, believe me, I know. I don't own it at this point by choice, let me tell you! I'm not happy in my current situation and desparately want the heck out of it but financially I'm not in the best of shape right now with this car... Book trade-in value in its current state will be ~6K if I'm lucky and I still owe $11+ on it. I'll really get the shaft when it comes time to trade... But I can either spend $500/month now on a new car, or $400 a month for the current one plus a couple hundred more a month on this car once the warranty runs out and it continues to break down. Can't win either way, really... I was hoping to wait until the fall when the warranty runs out but I dunno, part of me thinks I need to go get rid of it tomorrow.Joatmon, I probably should throw the at me too, yes - brakes are sonmewhat important. I'll have them look at it.

Ha! It came back! I knew it would come back, just didn't expect it to come back this soon. We shall see...

I've already put a few bullets in the Vibe, that's why my window is broken. j/k! I should go talk to the salesman down there at the Pontiac dealer who greets me with "Back again? What's wrong with that piece of **** now?" every time I go in. I'm sure someone like that will give me top dollar for my trade!

Whew, it was just one of my cheap (removed) wheel covers that I have on my steelies for winter. What a relief! The car still sucks though.

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Whew, it was just one of my cheap (removed) wheel covers that I have on my steelies for winter. What a relief! The car still sucks though. Hey wait a minute CP. Give credit where credit is due...or something like that. This time there was nothing wrong with the 'nuts and bolts' of your Vibe. Maybe it has healed .

Oh no, it hasn't healed. I wish it has.

My friend it is time to put that car for SALE!!!! I feel for you though CP, I really do.....

No, I can't, and I'm not blaming them for this problem... But I can still blame them on ruining my window tint and not being able to use my *bleepin'* window for I don't kow how long until they get the parts in, thanks to their extremely poorly designed window mechanism. heh Absolutely ruined my day!