1997 neon DOHC.

I'm not sure if its the wheel bearings, CV joint or differential.

Any suggestions on how I can trouble shoot this.

 

bump.

 

Try setting front end on jack stands and then you can check ball joints ect. Check for play and looseness. Also could be struts. If your hub is a culprit (Normally get noise other the when hitting a bump if hub) try turning wheel and place your hand on the spring and see if you get vibrations. If Also check Tie rod ends for loosensess. If any grease fittings from alreay replaced tie rod ends, ball joints grease them. If possibly a strut then when on the gound jounce (Bounce) the vehicle and have your hand on the struts mount and strut top and see if you have excess vibrations there as well. Should be able to find something. If you turn you wheels left to right and get noise then you probably have a ball joit, tie rod, or stru mount noise. If just up and down then, check Strut, ball joint, and mount.

 

What ewetho posted was very good information, and I would definitely listen to what he stated.

Possible squeaks from the front wheel well could be as follows.

Struts
Tie Rods
Sway Bar bushings
Motor Mounts
Ball joints

The first thing to do is check all your fittings and make sure everythings nice and tight. Also check for items needing greasing or needing cleaning. Then do as ewetho suggested and test your strusts and hub for looseness/wear n tear. Also, get your car elevated and look at your motor mounts. You should have 3 of them I do believe. These are made of rubber usually in an OEM setup and they wear out over time. This will produce a squeaking sound and it will also need to be replaced over time anyhow. It's a good idea to check these.

Strut mounts are also a good place to check. These will wear out sometimes faster then the strut itself....and can produce the squeak as well.

 

I went through those checks. I dont think the noise is coming from suspension. The squeak is syncronized to the wheel rotation. The faster I go the the faster it squeaks (like a chirp almost). I put it up on jackstands and rotated the wheel. It made a faint rubbing sound but we couldn't identify were it was coming from. We changed the brake rotors ... but that didn't help. At low speeds the sound sounds like a low growl and the pitch fluctuates as I speed up.

I've already taken my steering knuckle to the shop to have new bearings put in. Will the differential or CV joints make a noise like this?

Not to confuse the matter but the noise is coming from the driver side and when jacking the car up we noticed that the driver side sat lower than the other side (maybe 1 1/2 inches). So I am toying with the idea that the strut spring on that side is weakening and when there is weight on the wheels something is rubbing. This might be why I cant recreate the noise while it is on jack stands. I was unable to find any components that appeared to be damage by that type of rubbing ... although I may be looking in the wrong spots.

It continues making the noise even when I coast down a hill in neutral. The noise also sounds lounder on hot humid days (although this might just be the acoustics of the air). This problem is driving me nuts.