Weird Strut Noise?

I have an '04 Cavalier, and I just started noticing a weird sound, I'd say like a grinding noise coming from the front-right where the wheel is at. Thought at first it was something in my glove box, but it wasn't.

What it's doing is when I hit a slight bump, or any kind of bump, I hear this grinding noise, from the front-right side of the car.

I tried bouncing the car up and down from the outside, but could not hear any grinding, or noise from the suppension.


I'm curious what it could be, and if it is going to be something that needs to be fixed.

It's going to cost ~$80 to take it in, so I wanted to post here first, see what ya'll had to say.

[Edit] - Recent work, had breaks checked, and tires rotated. Wouldn't think the would have anything to do with it, but it might so I thought I'd include that information.


Thanks for any help/advice.

what does it do when it is making the noise and you step on the brakes?
any difference's.
dont have mud flaps do you? are they toutching the tire any way at all?
there is also a mud flap/water flap/rubber flap that keeps water and road dirt off the side of the engine. this is located behind the tire within the wheel well. that may be loose and rubbing intermitently.
just a few thoughts

No difference, appling breaks or not, still makes the rattling/slight squeeking noise.

No mud flaps, nothing that would touch the tires. (Would almost say, when it was snowy, it sounds like it would if you had slush/ice build up, and went to turn, or hit a bump, but it's not snowing the past few days, it's been raining)

But it does sound a lot more like a rattling noise, over a rubbing noise.

is the strut bolt broken? cuz it sounds like yours is doing what mine did about a month ago and my strut bolt had snapped in half thus making a rattling sound when i hit bumps.

Where can i find this strut bolt? mines got the same noise.. Maybe this is a model-wide issue

ooops, i ment its a sway bar bolt, not a strut bar bolt. lol. and it is located behind the wheel and when you jack the car up you will see that the sway bar does not attach to anything anymore if that is the problem.

the pliers are gripped onto the bolt that maybe broken if you have the problem i did...
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f268/JStumpalump150/1027071547.jpg

Broken sway bar end links are very common on cavaliers.

Bonus: the parts are pretty inexpensive.

I had a sway bar end link break on a 95 Explorer and it sounded terrible when ever I would hit a bump in the road. It sounded like the front end was going to fall off. I bought the part at O'Reillys and the cost was less than $20 for both sides. The parts were made by MOOG. Sort of a pain to change. Also had a strut noise when I first bought my 04 Cav. It was a squeaking noise that I swore was coming from inside the car just behing the dash. To my surprise it was coming from the very top of strut on the drivers side. Sprayed some lithium grease inside the top of the strut and everything is quiet. I think if you read around this is a common noise&fix for the Cav. Hope this helps.

yeah, very inexpensive. they were like $10 per side and have all new bushings bolts and washers. and if this is your problem change both sides, not just one, cuz the other one is probly ready to go aswell. my good one pretty much snapped when i was replacing it cuz it was shot too.

yeah, very inexpensive. they were like $10 per side and have all new bushings bolts and washers. and if this is your problem change both sides, not just one, cuz the other one is probly ready to go aswell. my good one pretty much snapped when i was replacing it cuz it was shot too.Yea do both of them at the same time. Both of mine broke within a month on the Explorer. From the above picture the Cav's look pretty easy to change.

the hardest part was pounding the old ones out cuz they were corroded, but some liquid wrench and a hammer did the trick.

If you have access to air tools the easiest thing to do is to cut them off with a die grinder and a cut-off wheel. With a hoist and proper tools it's a 15 minute job. Without that, well, I guess it depends on your ingenuity.

Sounds great guys. Im gonna pick some up tomorrow after school and change em out. Hopefully that fixes everything. Does this broken bolt do any kind of damage to the car over time?

it might knock your wheels out of alignment cuz of the rattling againt the other parts every time you hit a bump

if it is still there afterwards, drive str8 ahead and swerve side to side. if it comes and goes away or changes pitch then it will most likely be the hub bearings

if it is still there afterwards, drive str8 ahead and swerve side to side. if it comes and goes away or changes pitch then it will most likely be the hub bearings If it is the bearing let's hope is doesn't cost as much as the Explorer hub bearing. Each one is $450. I would assume since the Cav is not 4WD it should be much cheaper. A bad bearing in the Explorer has a very lound grumbling,growling noise to it. And your correct if you can change the pitch from driving side to side then chances are it's the bearing. Trouble is it's hard to tell which side it's coming from.

i could damn near feel where it was coming from. it was one of the easiest i ever done. i changed hub today. thats good to go. now for the damn transmission!

a test you can do to find out which bearing is bad if there is one is to swerve from side to side and if it makes noise when you go left its the right bearing and if it does it when you go right it is the left one, usually. but i think it is the sway bar bolt because it does it when he hits holes and bearings make noise when you turn.

does the sound change if accelerating or turning? If it does it may be a bad cv joint.

nope its pretty much universal. im trying to find a minute of free time to check this all out. ive been damn busy lately.