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Dear Mr. Bayliss,
I have a 1990 Nissan Pulsar N14 front-wheel drive sedan, done 160,000km.
There is a slight metallic squealing noise coming from the right front wheel.
The squeal only occurs when the vehicle is moving forward.
There is no squeal when reversing.
I have removed the wheel to check for debris but found nothing.
With the wheel removed, I rotated the hub (with the help of a tool) and there was no squeal in either direction.
I put the wheel back on and rotated the wheel by hand - the squeal occurred whilst rotating in the forward direction only (clockwise).
I removed the wheel again to check for anything making contact with the inside of the wheel, but found nothing - not even any scrape marks.
And once again, there is no squeal whilst rotating the hub without the wheel.

So what do you think ? Wheel bearing, brake calipers, or something else ?

And what might it typically cost to replace such an item.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Dean.

Brake pads normally have a wear indicator which is a metal strip that touches on the brake rotors when the pads get thin and make a squealing sound. This is likely to be the cause of your problem or even a stone stuck in the calliper - a common problem. The indicator is normally located on the inner brake pad, the one at the calliper piston end. A set of brake pads can cost anything from $45 - $85 and most workshops will charge around 0.5hr to install which is around $45 - labour.

In most cases the noise is evident in both directions but we have seen the odd cases where the noise is only evident while moving forward.