Danistheman1234

When im driving and i happen to drive by any kind of wall that will amplify my wheel sounds i hear a light scratching sound that goes ssst...ssst...ssst...ssst, and i took my wheels off to see if its the brakes and my brakes still have like a 1/4" or so still left on them and the warning think on the pads isnt hitting the rotor, i spun my wheels with my hand and couldnt hear anything. Could it possibly be the wheel bearings or what?

dock420

Try these couple of tests first:
1. While driving, have your windows down and see if the noise amplifies and/or is different depending on a right or left turn. If it is, then its probable a wheel bearing.

or

2. After a drive, feel the hubs......If its hot-probably a wheel bearing.

Dont know if you have ever changed the brakes, but try to repack the bearing atleast when you do brakes....

Good luck

Tantrix

If it's not your bearings, I bet this is it...

Years ago I was changing the upper ball joints on my '97 Z71 and had my brake caliper off sitting on the top of the upper control arm. After changing both front ball joints, I take off into town and heard the exact sound you are describing...the best way to describe it is a "metallic "hissing" sound. It ended up being the thin metal shield that runs along the side of about 45% of the brake rotor.

As I was driving, the outside edge of my rotor was rubbing on it. I pulled into an Advance Auto at about 8:00pm, pulled my flashlight out and compared both sides. Sure enough, the left (passenger side) brake rotor shield had about 1/4"-1/2" of a gap, and the right (driver's side) shield was literally up against the rotor. I went inside and bought a 3-pack of el-cheapo prybars from the bargain bin and about 2 minutes later the driver's side rotor shield matched the passenger side and the noise was gone.

Somehow when changing my upper ball joints, when I sat my brake calipers up top out of the way, I bent the shield in up against my rotor on the driver's side without noticing it.