Car noises, any ideas?

Nephew

Guys, excuse my ignorance, as I only bought my first car five months ago, a 2002 opel astra. Anyway, if there's someone sitting in the front passenger seat and/or rear seats I can hear a slight squeaking noise coming from what sounds like the rear left wheel, not all the time though and I never hear it when driving by myself. It's been like that since I got it, anyone I mentioned it to is never able to hear it though.

Over the past few weeks the car seems to be making more mechanical noises than normal. When going over speed bumps, there seems to be a bit of rattling coming from underneath the car. Sometimes when changing gears, I can actually feel the gears change underneath my feet if you know what I mean, with some very minor rattling. There also appears to be some rattling noise coming from near the front left wheel, which is more noticeable when driving on bad roads.

In the last few days, I feel as if the car isn't completely level, sloping down a tad towards the left front wheel. If I drove over something like small loose stones or a manhole cover the left side of the car would be more sensitive to it, than if I had gone over it with the right wheel. My father, who has been around machines his entire life, reckons its fine and that I am imagining it.

It was serviced by the garage just before I bought it, and is not due another till November. The mileage is nearly 59,000 and I was told to change the timing belt at 67,000. NCT is up August 2008.

I'd appreciate any advice.

antodeco

With stating the obvious:

Have you checked tyre pressures?
Have you checked all wheel nuts?

I remember there was a "squeaking" before in a car I had. Turned out it was something in glovebox AND a dodgy passenger seatbelt

Again, sorry to state the obvious, but sometimes we dont think of the obvious things!

mike65

Sounds like something in the front left steering/suspension set-up has worn, could be a bushing - or a loose bolt! :eek: Get underneath and have a look for a start.

Edit your dad may not be right!

Mike.

crosstownk

If it's none of the obvious things stated above, there are plenty of other things that could be rattling - worn anti roll bar link/bush, defective shock, worn shock mounting, ball joint, etc. It could also be that the brake pads are rattling.

You should get it checked out just in case it develops into something serious.

qiper

to check brake pads,sometimes they do such sounds