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Squeal While Turning

14K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  RFC89747 
#1 ·
Hi everyone. I have a 2012 Wrangler with just under 75k miles. Today I was making a sharp turn (about full lock) in a parking lot (low speed) and I noticed a feint squeal while turning. So I took it to an empty part of the lot and did full lock turn circles. In both directions I hear this squeal noise coming from whatever front tire is on the outside of the turn. I have 315/75/16 duratracs with about 25k miles on them. Could this just be the tires squealing? Again this is at low speed (about 5 mph in a tight circle). It sounds a little more tinny than I would expect tire squeal to be.

Any ideas of what it might be?
 
#4 ·
I understand that the OP says it's 'tinny' but you should double check that it's not a wheel alignment issue.
 
#5 ·
Try doing it on lose ground and see if it still does it.

Are you turning the steering wheel all the way till it wont turn anymore and still holding pressure against it? If so it very well can be the pump. When you turn the wheels to the stops and keep pressure on the steering wheel it is still trying to turn and the pump will be pumping through the bypass so it dose not over pressure. This makes a quite to extremely loud noise depending on the pump.
 
#6 ·
Good idea with the loose ground. I'll have to see if I can a big gravel or dirt lot to do circles in.

I'm not turning it to full lock, it isn't the pump noise. The squealing comes on just before full lock. It still does it during full lock as well, and then I can also hear the pump struggling of course.
 
#9 ·
Before you go spending all kind of time and money, try it again in a parking lot without painted lines. My duratracs scream bloody murder on full turns over paint. You should hear them over crosswalk paint. Probably a combination of tread wear and psi that I run at.
 
#10 ·
I didn't realize that the serpentine belt should be changed at 75k miles since it isn't mentioned in the service manual. I'll probably do that then, but I don't think its the noise I'm hearing. I didn't check on loose surface yet, but I did a few more circles today. I'm thinking it's the tires. It doesn't happen at very low speeds, or low speeds as I first thought. It's more of a moderate speed for how tight the circle is. When I would start the circle going slowly I didn't hear anything. Only when I gave it a bit of a power surge did it start to make the stutter squeal noise. Pretty sure it is the tires now. I'll let you know if the loose surface confirms that though.

Thanks everyone.
 
#11 ·
I didn't realize that the serpentine belt should be changed at 75k miles since it isn't mentioned in the service manual. I'll probably do that then, but I don't think its the noise I'm hearing.
Yeah, good idea to at least inspect the belt for signs of wear and cracking -- I had one fail on a Chrysler van at about that mileage. You are kind of screwed when that happens because not only does your power steering quit, but so does your water pump. Luckily I was only a couple hundred feet from home when mine broke.

When you install a new serpentine belt, double check that it is riding in the right groves on all pulleys and idlers. I installed one and got it one grove off on one pulley, and as soon as I started the engine it shredded the brand new belt. Thirty five bucks, poof! :(
 
#14 ·
Hey, sorry everyone. I honestly kind of forgot about it. It isn't very often that I am driving in tight circles in parking lots so it slipped my mind. I did however get the serp belt replaced. I'll try and find a spot to test it once the pavement dries up around here.
 
#15 ·
It dried up yesterday and I found an open lot. I took it in a full lock circle and it was silent until I got up to speeds where I could feel the tires breaking loose a bit. Then, obviously, I heard a little tire slippage noise. I believe the original squeal issue happened at a lower speed as I don't remember feeling the tires breaking loose. So, I think the new serp belt solved the problem. /thread
 
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