I’ve searched around and can’t find someone specifically talking about a grinding noise.

I have a new to me Acura TL-S with 220k miles and this weird grinding noise just started when I turn, and a little/sometimes while straight. Mostly at slower speeds.

I was pretty convinced is was the wheel bearing, but after replacing the wheel bearing I still have the noise.

my next assumption is the CV axle. I know most people recommend Raxles, but I’m not trying to drop $300-400 to find out that’s not it either.

any thoughts or suggestions? Maybe I just pick up a cheap CV from the auto parts store to see if that’s it and then buy a Raxle in the winter when I have more money/time.

 

I thought maybe it was the brakes, but I pulled the brakes apart and checked pads, rotors, torque and it all seems to be fine.

 

I think it is highly unlikely for an axle to make the kind of noise you are describing, that and if you have no steering wheel vibrations on a straight smooth road, then your current axles are probably good to go. If you do opt to replace them, take @DMZ's advice and buy APWI axles; they are inexpensive (like a tenth of the cost of OEM or Raxles), and nice and smooth; I've been running them on my car for nearly 2 years and they're great.

Edit: when you took your brakes apart, what kind of condition were your dust shields in? I ask because one of mine was in great shape, the other was rusted to the point where it was literally hanging by a few threads of metal and it was just starting to rub on the rotor.

 

the dust shields were also fine. No obvious wear, and I’ve had the issue of dust shields rubbing before, but it doesn’t seem to be that either.

 

Some other guy on here had the same description and it turned out to be his transmission was running low on fluid. He had an MT.

Link to that thread

 

trans is on the driver side, but so is the internals for steering rack. Check your PS fluid level!

 

All great suggestions. I’ve found that I ended up with base model rotors, and have swapped to the Type S rotors. All issues have been solved. After measuring the rotor thickness, it all started to make sense.

since I recently replaced the rotors, I should have guessed that was the issue.

thank you everyone.

 

Interesting, this is the second time in the last year where someone was able to fit base model rotors to a car with Brembo brakes.

 

The rotors fit just fine, but as soon as looked at adding the pads it was a dead giveaway. I know, I should have done pads and rotors at the same time, but the pads looked almost new.

 

Yes, the rotors will fit no problem, however, if you had done new pads you *should* have immediately noticed they were almost too thick to fit the caliper and pad combo over the new rotor; that and the diameter of the base rotor is smaller which in turn means the top of the pads don't have any metal to push against.