Hey, folks. I bought a 2000 Cirrus last year, and it is now making a very loud squeaking/groaning sound in the front end. While driving, the sound is the most noticeable coming from the passenger side, and it seems concentrated in the wheel hub area rather than somewhere deeper. Also, the sound is the most obvious when I'm driving slowly. The creaking seems to be linked to turning, going over bumps, and things like that. I've recently replaced both the bearing and the strut, but the noise continues. A mechanic friend of mine thinks that the tie rods and/or other components of the steering rack are to suspect. Has anyone here had a similar issue and solved it? Are there any simple maintenance tricks to making the noise stop? Granted, the car handles and drives fine, but that god-awful squeaking might get me a noise complaint if I wake up any more babies while driving through my neighborhood. Thanks, all.

 

Have you checked the lower ball joint/control arm?
My 1998 squeaked badly and some grease helped temporally with the noise, one has to lift the (worn out) rubber of the ball joint and pack it with grease, Few drops of motor oil also works but does not last as long as the grease. Should have the control arm replaced as eventually the ball joint will break and that could be a bad thing.

 

I had the same issue on my 2000 Cirrus. Had to replace both lower control arms and it fixed the problem. Cheapest way to do this is to buy the control arms from rockauto.com and install yourself or have a mechanic install them. I was quoted $1200 to install both lower front control arms with parts and labor. I bought both control arms for a total of $300 and paid a mechanic $250 to install. Saved a boat load of $$.