I have a 1999 Stratus.
When I turn the steering wheel either left or right a very loud low pitch squeeking occurs. Loud enough that pedestrians turn their heads.

This only happens while driving slow through the city streets or while parking, pulling into a gas station etc. Nothing happens when I'm stopped and I turn my wheels and as far as I can tell there's no squeeking while driving at faster speeds 50kms/hr (35mi/hr).

I checked my power steering fliud and it seems fine.
I checked both boots and they seem to be intact.

Any ideas?

 

Welcome to DF
Ck your fan belts to see if they need to be tighten.

 

It is deffantly not the fan belt.
It sounds like it's coming from the axel somewhere. It's very hard to diagnose though because it will only make noise when in motion.

 

I didn't think these cars had a belt driven fan. I think you might have something with the brakes that might be causing the problem becuase you clearly stated it doesn't do the noise stopped cranking the wheel which would eliminate the belts or pump. When turning the wheels stopped, that puts the most force on the pump and belts over when the car is moving.

 

Hmmm... The brakes seem to work fine. Could that even happen for them to make noise when turning?

 

Our guess is about all you can get since hearing this on the forum is pretty difficult. But you already eliminated the first most obvious guess about the belt.

 

I'll just hoist it up and put grease on all the joints. Maybe it could just be sand or salt from the roads grinding away?

 

Without comming to your house, taking a listen, driving the car, duplicating the condition, then investigating the possible causes, You'll need to do that work. Obviously you did the first part by eliminating the belt as an issue. So now you need to dig in deeper and check all the other parts of the system that move which would cause this mysterious squeeling.

 

i had this problem with my 96.... it was the lower ball joints siezing up. there's no grease nipple on them. they can dry out after this many years. If you want to quiet them down you can poke a small hole in the boot and grease it with a needle greaser or even just spray some wd40 in it. The downside it that you will likely still need to replace them, the downside to that is that you cant just replace the balljoint....you have to change the entire lower control arm. I did mine myself on jackstands.... it was a tight fit but it is doable. No fancy tools required, just hand tools

 

I had my wife drive up and down the street while I jogged next to the car. I've determined it's coming from the passenger side.
I'll try beefs needle greaser suggestion for a temporay fix for now. Thank you.