I've been reading through a lot of the posts about people's volvo's squealing or screeching and hadn't quite found anything that sounded exactly like my issue, but if I missed something please let me know and I apologize if this is a repeated issue.

Issue:
This happened a little after I accidentally rear ended someone. I have a 98 Volvo s70 that makes a screeching noise that sounds like it is going in a circular motion. My car is quiet at start up and once I accelerate and reach about 5-10 mph a loud thunk noise happens, like something in the back of my car is shifting heavily and then the screech starts up and then goes away once I go a little faster. It only returns after i've been stopped and then move forward again and always seems to go away once I go farther and faster. I thought because it was squeaking that it was my timing belt, but when I brought it to the mechanic he said it was my brakes and replaced the pads that were still in good shape from a full brake repair I had done a year ago. I drove my car off his lot and it was indeed quiet again. until I drove it a couple more times then the loud thunk and squeal from the back at start-up happened again and still happens. there was one day since the repair (a couple weeks ago) that the screeching through my entire drive was horrible, just sounded like metal scraping against metal anytime i went from stopped to slowly accelerating, but hasn't happened as intensely since that one day, but does continue to happen on and off. What could this possibly be? the mechanic didn't mention anything about the timing belt even though i initially told him i was worried that it might be that. would it screech from the back if it were my timing belt? I am new to the volvo repair world and have a repair manual coming in the mail. I'm tired of not understanding my car and spending the money to have someone else "fix" my issues. Any suggestions you can offer would be greatly appreciate. Thank you so much.

-Kate

 

The timing belt is in the front of the car and it doesn't squeal. Anything is possible but its not likely and your mechanic looked at so I would assume he knew enough to know that.

Noise from the back can be brakes or wheel bearing or both or anytihng else for that matter

It soulds to me like you may have a bad bearing. If the wheel is whobbling a tad it could cause the brakes to squeal and i suppose you could hear a thud. Especially since the pads were replaced. Brakes can also squeal if the pad backing is not greased correctly at installatoin. Especially on an older car.

Both of the above could improve with speed since the rotational force tends to fix the noise and align the rotor about the shaft better.

 

Thank you for your knowledge and help kwatt.

 

I would take it back to the mechanic that charged you a fee to fix a problem that is not fixed. If the noise is coming from the rear and the sound changes with speed, it has to be something wheel related. Could even be an issue with the parking brake system.