Weird squeak due to tyres??? Opinions?

[lujabe]

So I have this 'rotational' squeaking noise in my vehicle that nobody can explain...

It's a 'rotational' metallic squeak - sounds exactly like the noise brakes might make.

It occurs while the vehicle is rolling, brakes unapplied. Can be easily heard with window down, idling up a driveway at ~5km/hr (squeak...squeak...squeak...). Doesn't occur when the vehicle is stationary, and speeds up with vehicle speed - it's eventually drowned out by tyre/road noise.

It's presently at the dealer for the 6th attempted repair on this over nearly 12 months. Fixes attempted so far include: rotors machined, brakes deglazed, brake shields adjusted, part of tailshaft changed. U joints are apparently OK. Bearing are apparently OK. The noise doesn't occur when the vehicle is on a hoist - only when rolling on the ground.

I just spoke to the dealership, and they're blaming the A/T tyres I have fitted (Bridgestone 697's in factory specified tyre size). Apparently they swapped all 4 wheels/tyres for a donor set and the noise disappeared. Put my wheel/tyres back on and the noise reappeared.

This completely baffles me - I asked them for a theory/explanation, and all they could offer was "the noise went away when we swapped the wheels/tyres". They changed all 4 wheels each time, so didn't bother to try to narrow it down to a particular wheel/tyre, or corner of the vehicle. They also couldn't offer an opinion as to whether it was the different wheels, or tyres, that made a difference.

Has anybody ever experienced this? Or have any theories as to why it's happening?

[KKnut]

Oh yeah that's classic big tyre squeak, look it up!

[emoji23] Sorry I have no idea, due to a total lack of trust with dealers I wouldn't believe it unless I saw it (or heard/didn't hear it... See if you can swap wheels with someone and try to narrow it down yourself, try a Jeep wrecker maybe? I really hate these kind of issues.


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[Daveidw]

Mine does this also. Still on original tyres. (30000km) Haven't worried about it because I can only hear it driving slowly with windows down.
Mine also had the "dog whistle" sound which was cured with a replacement diff motor (actuator?).

[Trailfirst]

On a tangent, I once had similar thing in my ED Falcon - but it would get quite loud at higher speed. Went thru all the same sort of troubleshooting and eventually isolated it to driver side front - but couldn't actually find what the heck it was - both looking for it myself and by taking it to a few different mechanics. Then one day after a drive thru narrow rainforest roads where the sound echoing back in the "tunnel" like environment really made me nuts, we had pulled up at a rest stop whence I gave the front driver tyre an almighty kick - and it squeaked!! - turned out it was the frikkin hubcap - oscillating slightly at part of its circumference. Frizbeed it into the undergrowth (yeah, I know...) and problem FIXED.

To the topic: is the sound different on different surface? and does it increase or decrease with slight turning of the wheel?? - I've had low speed squeaking on a Commondung that was fixed with a slight tweak to toe angle - ie. it was still in spec but toward the max limit of toe IN - so tweaking it back toward the OUT limit (pretty much zero from memory) fixed the issue. In that respect it might well be the tread block design interacting with combo of toe and camber to make the sound.

[NTRubicon]

Twice I've had this for different reasons. The first was a rear brake pad getting to its end of life after 30,000km (sounded like it was coming from the front) and the second was an issue with wheel balancing weight position when tyres were rotated (backs put on the front and slightly larger calliper at the front so a gentle rub) hope you get answers, I know how annoying it is

[lujabe]

Thanks for the thoughts guys - It seems to mostly be an issue travelling straight. I have to turn into my garage at full lock and don't notice the noise when turning. Doesn't seem to be affected by surface - I hear it on concrete, asphalt and dirt. The toe angle theory makes some sort of sense - I might follow up on that.

Jeep gave me an "invoice" for the work they did that states "Requires to replace tyres for this noise to go away as they were not designed for asphalt". Yes, they actually wrote that down... So I relayed all this to Bridgestone and they want to see the vehicle at their head office tomorrow arvo (luckily only 15 mins from my work). Will see what they make of it - hopefully something slightly more sensible than Jeep.