Squealing upon making tight right turn?

When I make very tight turn -- turning the steering wheel hard right to enter a parking spot, I am hearing a squeal seeming to come from the engine compartment area, possible near the right front tire, but not entirely sure about the location.

Not noticing anything during the same sort of "left" turn. Anything I can check before giving myself up to a repair shop? Most likely culprit (64k, 2008).

kris

 

Hi Dr. Wong!!!!

Thanks for the reply. A guy I work with said it could be the power steering belt tension, but then if it were it would do it no matter which side I turned, something about an extreme turn causing pressure build-up. To be honest, I did not totally understand his logic.

And, he admitted that he was not sure how the Prius steering worked. Anyway...it's Saturday soon, I will
get my knees dirty in the morning and see what I can see.

 

Hi Bisco, I actually THOUGHT there was no power steering stuff like in a conventional car, but was not sure enough to "stick my neck out." Thank you!!

Opps, I see Patrick also corrected the misinformation.

Thanks to you both!

 

Well, Bisco, we are two "intimates," because I obviously have no clue either. I will take Dr. Wong's suggestion and do the extreme turn in the a.m. and see what I see! Hopefully, it is something simple, 'cause $$$ is short at the moment (Hubby just spent $200 on a new Duracell battery for the Camry in Oregon and is getting ready to spend $500 or so on a new CV joint -- and do NOT get me started on that CV joint story (leaking for long time, told him to get it fixed...).

Thanks again, all. I will report back...I hope!

 

Crawled under car, looked at a lot of stuff. Saw nothing that would be getting in the way of the tires on either side, even with them pulled all the way right. Saw a few other things that concerned me, I will think about them. Coolant, filters and oil level good.

Guess it is off to the local Toy dealer sometime in the next week or so!

Thanks for the effort!
kris

 

I did not bring a camera with me to the MidWest, and I am one of the very few people in the U.S. who do not have a smart phone, so no way to take a picture, but on the passenger side, up near the front of the car, but still "south" of the wheel wells is a ridge of metal, of sorts that travels down the length of the car to the back. I noticed a plastic film piece (this is a tough plastic, almost like the old photo negative plastic) that has come partially loose from it's spot on this ridge. Where the plastic should be seated is a hole of some kind (very uniform sort of hole, about the the size of a dime?). I suppose hole is supposed to be there and plastic is supposed to cover it. I am sure I could glue it back, but not entirely sure about the whole "what does it do and is it important" and should I cover it back up.

And, on the same side of car, about under the rear door, the LARGE plastic panel that runs almost the length of the underside of the car is starting to come loose. The front of this thing came loose a few years ago and was almost acting like a tractor blade, scooping up various pieces of leaves, dirt and sticks from the road. I used some GE silicone II and fastened it back and that part is still holding solid. Suppose I will have to do something in the same line for this new part.

Finally, maybe a quarter of the way under the car, again on the passenger side, around where the rear door is, the undercarriage has this spring....about the diameter of a thick Sharpie black marker that goes from somewhere to somewhere -- there is a metal plate and while I am pretty skinny, I could not totally get far enough under to see where it goes. It seems to have a fair amount of play in the actual spring. That could be normal. And, I did not think to check if there is another spring on the other side.

Just in front (toward front of car) of the stabilizer bar, IIRC....

It looks a lot like the spring that is part of the wiper assembly shaft -- but -- of course, no wipers on the undercarriage.

I figured I would ask about that spring thing (wish I knew what it did, seems strange) when I took the car in for investigation of the squeal.

 

Problem found, I think....tire squeal...

Was at a gathering today and happened to mention it. A couple of people went with me. The agreement was my fast, sharp turn into the parking space, usually running a bit late to work, was causing intermittent tire squeal.

Whew, a relief. Did not want to spend any cash right now.