The car is a 2009 Sport AT with 57 thousand miles. I’ve had it for a little less than a year, and the whole time I’ve owned the car it has made this noise once or twice day when the car first starts moving. Sounds like a squeak coming from the passenger side wheel well possibly, but I can't tell if it's coming from the front or back. I’ve searched the forum for solutions but found nothing, so I found some time to record the noise. If you have any thoughts or advice, help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Likely need more data, chief. Sounds like you're really opening up the throttle. First thought is breaking traction at the tires. I get those chirps myself taking off on a wet road from a stop if I gas it.
Are either of your front tire/s are bald/balding and what year were they made in? It'll be listed on the sidewall.

Courtesy of "dan the tire man" website.

​​​​​​bad alignment can also cause chirps. Hit any curbs or potholes prior to this symptom presenting?

 

Thanks Pyts, I appreciate the feedback. I’ve seen your comments on plenty of posts, you’ve always got some insight to share! I’m going to try to record the noise again tomorrow. I’ve gotten the noise without pushing the throttle much at all, and I only hear the noise when the car first starts up and moves, no other occasions. I picked up new tires a few months after I bought the car, they’ve only got 10k on them at most, so I don’t think that’s the culprit. I also had the car aligned and the tires rotated about 4-5k ago. Before I got the new tires the old set used to squeal when I peeled out of a light, but since I got the new Yokohama’s I haven’t heard a peep.

 

Maybe the door lock actuator(s) is failing?

The only thing I was able to hear was a beep and then the doors locking.

 

Oh wow I didn’t even notice the doors locking till you mentioned it! I’ve locked the doors countless times while spending time in the car and have never replicated that noise, I only hear the noise during the conditions previously stated. I’ll make sure my doors are already locked when I record the noise tomorrow. I kind of doubt that’s the culprit since I’ve never heard the locks make that sound on any other occasion, but you never know. Thanks for the feedback!

 

I think you hit the nail on the head Goobers. Started the car this morning, and made sure to lock the doors before the car began moving. To my surprise, I heard/recorded a squeak, much like the squeak I recorded before, the very moment I locked my doors. Further strengthening your guess, I didn’t hear anything when car began to move. I will continue to monitor this and see if the door lock mechanism is truly the culprit! Thanks again for the insight Goobers, definitely appreciate the help!

 

Hahahah, I missed the update. Nice work!!! And the sound seemed electrical, I just couldn't think of a cause.
Lock actuators is genius.
Do update if that turns out to be your fault!
​​​​This sound troubleshooting stuff has been pretty fun.

 

At this point, I’m about 90% sure it’s the lock actuators, since the noise always coincides with the locks. It really does sound like it’s coming from either the front or the rear passenger side door. Seeing that the issue is common, and that the fix is cheap and simple enough, I’m going to go ahead and replace the motors for the locks on those doors, starting with the rear. I have heard my hatch lock make some peculiar noises in the past as well, so I’m going to go ahead and replace that one as well. Then we’ll see if the noise goes away I’ll be back in a week or so with updates, just waiting on the motors now.

 

Change that lock ASAP! I waited to change mine until it broke and there worm gear driving not solenoid so there’s no release. I had to drill into it and by the grace of god I hit the worm and missed something you have to put into the new unit lol. Dealer said just tug on the cable it’ll pop, the dealer! Well I tugged and then tugged in 95 degree summer then I got mad and ripped the handle off and tore the cable out of the lock. So yeah... dealers dumb.

 

Wow that sounds like a total pain! Sorry you had to go through that, and thanks for helping me avoid it! Luckily, my motors arrived yesterday, and I have the day off tomorrow so I’ll be replacing the motors for certain. I don’t know how I’ll check for the noise after the fix, aside from leaving the car alone overnight and checking the following morning. Regardless, I’ll be back with updates soon!

 

So I replaced the motors in the hatch lock and the rear passenger side door. Oddly enough, the hatch lock gave me a lot more trouble than the door, even though the the work on the hatch should have been quick. A “20 minute job” quickly became my whole morning and the majority of my afternoon. This was due to a few reasons, starting with a stripped screw in the actuator. On the bright side, I learned how to extract screws using a dremel. The second issue I faced was a bit more perplexing, since I couldn’t have known that the replacement motor needed to be slightly filed in order to fit properly into the hatch lock actuator. The motor did fit without be filed as well, but upon use it would seize up every time, so the mod was entirely necessary. This took me about an hour to figure out, after swapping multiple motors in an last ditch attempt to see what wasn’t working. Even after getting everything back together, the actuator shell itself didn’t want to stay closed when the motor was in use. For some reason, every time I unlocked or locked the rear hatch, the actuator would bust open. A few zip ties in the right places kept it closed and functional, so that was my solution.

In the end, I spent the majority of my Friday the 13th extracting a screw. I’ll remember this day fondly haha.

Next job was the door, which only took about 3 hours and some change. I’m sure it could have been done quicker but I took my time and made various little mistakes, so I had to assemble/re-assemble the door more times then necessary. The motor for the door fit and functioned properly without any filing needed. On a separate note, the lock on the door handle is now difficult to manually push open and closed, for some unknown reason. It still worked effortlessly when using the electric door locking mechanism, but when psychically engaging the lock, it hardly budges unless a lot of pressure is applied. Either way, it works, so I’m not concerned at the moment.

I will have to wait until tomorrow to see if the squeak is gone, since the noise is typically heard when the car/locks haven’t seen use for 6+ hours. If the squeak persists, I will replace the motor in the lock actuator on the front passenger side door, since the sound is definitely coming from that side of the car. I will be back with updates.

 

Heard the squeak this morning, could’ve sworn it was coming from the exact same spot as previously heard, which I had believe to be the rear passenger door or the hatch. I’m guessing this must not have been the source of the noise, since I replaced both of those motors. I have the day off tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be spending a chunk of the day replacing the motor in the lock actuator for the front passenger side door. Wish me luck! Hoping to resolve this issue/sound asap!

 

Did you replace the motor in the actuator? I would've replaced the WHOLE actuator module.

Correction, I did for three of my doors. The motors were never the problem for me, it was other parts in the actuator. Its been a while, but I think it was the worm gears wearing down enough to start skipping.

 

Ooh I wish I had known this before attempted to fix it haha. Regardless, I appreciate the insight Goobers, it will certainly help me move forward with addressing this issue. I am going go ahead and try replacing the motor in the front passenger side door aswell, just to see if a simple motor swap does the trick since I already bought the motors. I’ll make sure to take a look at the main gear inside the actuator to see if I can locate any wear as well. If this doesn’t fix the problem, I’ll go ahead and order an actuator, looks like it isn’t too expensive and I’m confident I could swap it out fairly easily. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it!

 

Yeah, I thought you were doing the whole actuator and just calling it a motor, until I read the more recent posts... I was like, "hum...?"

 

Haha you’re right, it is a bit confusing! So much so that I confused the price of motors and the door lock actuator itself! I thought the actuator was around $50, but alas it is actually closer to $220 not too excited about this development, even if I’m closer to a solution than before. I’m still going to try the simple motor swap, but I’m not expecting a miracle. Thanks again for the help Goobers! I’ll be back with updates!

 

Since you're opening up the modules to put new motors, if it turns out to be a different part, you could try to see if you could source those smaller parts instead of the whole module.

But of course, this means you REALLY have to narrow down the source of the noise, otherwise it's gonna be "this bit? no, that bit? no.."

I did the whole actuator to skip the time, effort and skills needed to do it.

 

Yeah I’m basically at the point where I’m going to buy a new actuator, since I now know, for a fact, that it is indeed the front passenger side door actuator that’s making the noise. I know this only because I heard it squeak while the door panel was off, which made it easy to locate exactly where the noise was coming from.

Yesterday, I attempted to pull the actuator out of the front passenger side door. I removed everything necessary to start the job, such as the window, the door handle, etc. Upon reaching the actuator, I realized that every single screw(there’s 4 in total) holding the actuator in place is stuck, and completely unwilling to budge. I got a impact screw driver, thinking that it would do the trick, but it was to no avail. I was thinking about using some penetrating oil and taking another wack at it, but I’m really concerned about stripping the screws. Not sure what I should do now besides take it to a reputable mechanic. Either way, I’m ordering a new actuator today. If anyone has any advice, it’d be much appreciated!

 

@BaySFit Check out this video, brotha! I hope it helps.


Also, what you could do, too, is use a rotary tool and one of those flat, circular cutting disc attachments (image below) and grind a thin, flat hole in the head of the screw. This way, you can use a flat-tipped screw driver, and hopefully loosen it up.

 

I used a manual impact driver... I focused with more pounding INTO the screw, than turning, at first. It eventually gave way.

I didn't use penetrating oil, since I didn't really know about it at that time, but it should help.