uschoice

Hi guys,
Lately I've noticed a slightly high pitched squealing noise during decelerating at low speeds with the car in gear. When I press the clutch preparing to stop, the squeal immediately stops. It may be doing this at higher speeds, but the background noise could be covering it up. At first I was thinking serpentine belt or tensioner, but am thinking something with the clutch. The car is a 2005 TTS with 20,000 miles. Clutch feels fine, and I don’t beat on it either. Any suggestions? Thanks.

dantzig

It could be a lot of things. I had something similar and it ended up being a rear wheel bearing. Depressing the clutch takes the load off the axle, so it stops squealing.

Jon

uschoice

That's interesting Jon. One problem with diagnosing this, is that the pitch of the sound makes it difficult to pin-point the source. If I lay back on the gas even slightly, the sounds goes away too. And that is putting torque on the axles , but in a different direction.
David

dantzig

That is exactly what mine did. If I just went back and forth between very light and no throttle, it would change pitch or disappear.

It turned out it wasn't the classic wheel bearing failure, where there is galling in the bearing race. That tends to make a rumbling sound as the ***** bounce over the pits in the race. Instead, the outer part of the bearing was moving in the hub. It's just pressed in there.

It's hard to find because if you just lift the wheel off the ground on a jack and turn it, there's not much load so it doesn't make any noise.

Good luck!

Jon