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My SAAB warranty is up but my Carmax warranty is still good, so I took it in to Carmax to have them investigate what I think is a lot of suspension noise.
I have two symptoms: The first is up front. Something groans/squeaks/crunches over dips in the road, railroad tracks, during hard turns etc. It sounds pretty close to the firewall. I can recreate the problem by lifting and dropping the front bumper when it is parked. It used to do it a little but now it is a constant thing. The second noise is a loud "pop" that comes from under the car in the front, or the rear, or both sometimes. Very sharp sound, and it seems to happen when the suspension is compressed. For example, if I put it in reverse and back out of a spot, when I stop I get a pop in the back. If I brake for a stop-sign at the bottom of a hill, I get a pop or two in the front (maybe each side of the car popping once?) When I get out of the car if I have been in if for awhile, I get some pops when I am getting out, which suggests that it pops when uncompressing the suspension too.
The first noise is pretty much constant, although some days it behaves for a few minutes before starting up. The popping is harder to pinpoint and I doubt that the techs at Carmax will ever notice it. Lucky me for being so observant of my SAAB's noises :)
Anyway, Carmax gave me a call and told me that the suspension is just fine, but I have brake pads that are the wrong type (because they aren't OEM) and that they are causing all the noise because they have a gap and are moving. They of course want to replace the pads and resurface the rotors. The thing is that the pads are OEM, and the rotors were replaced with the pads about 6 months ago at a SAAB only indie shop.
I just sighed and asked them not to bother doing that right now because it is of course something not under the warranty, and the brakes are as good as they have ever been, and it just doesn't sound very feasible to me. Plus, I don't want to spend money here. This is supposed to be a warranty thing.
So when I go to talk to them about this, what should I suggest they look at instead of the brakes? I mean, that is a pretty off base diagnosis isn't it? I would like to put an end to at least the constant and reproducible load groan/squeak/crunch up front.
Sorry for rambling.
Thanks!
Heath
posted by 128.192.179...
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