I have a random squeak from the rear of car and want to try and find the source – if I buy a cheap plug-in (via headphone jack) microphone, is there anyway I can attached the microphone to the outside of the car and then listen to what the microphone picks up via the iphone?

You could strap the iPhone to the back of the car and listen via bluetooth headphones.

I’d rather not – it’s going to be down near the rear shocks and going at 60mph!

what you’ll hear is wind on the microphone

It’s going to be placed near the wheel hubs/rear shocks so out of direct wind.

Use silicone spray and spray one suspension/anti roll bar/torsion link/sway arm bush at a time then drive it till squeak goes away.

Microphone is a daft idea as all you’d hear is wind noise/tyre rumble, perhaps try a small child zip tied to the underside.

you could record a memo using the microphone? failing that use the headphones to phone a car dealer and buy a new car 🙂

Must be an option for a cheap small bluetooth microphone? Or even one of those on-ear headset for calls (not sure if you can record directly from them but you could always call the garage and switch to the headset and annoy the hell out of them, obviously the passenger should be doing this part…) :p

You’ll never find it with a microphone! Wd40 idea is interesting – or jack car up and use tyre lever or large screwdriver to lever suspension arms up/down and left/right until you find it, then change bush. My experience though is that once your car reaches the point where this type of thing starts it never really ends, so maybe new car time if it bothers you that much!!

Remove rear seats and boot lining? Generally quite easy to do with a few bolts and you’ll be able to hear much more clearly. Have a passenger stick their head back there for better spatial resolution.

It’s not suspension related so spraying lube won’t do anything – it’s either tyre noise, diff whine or a wheel bearing, all of which require some analysis with the car in-motion. I know of various garages having such a tool with microphones via leads which they place outside of the car to zero in on the noise-source, hence my idea to try and replicate. Anyway, it’s now with the garage today for investigation.

I used an expensive digital condenser mic in the interior of our car (to record a conversation). It sounded like we were talking over the engine of an old 1.9Dprop plane. I can just imagine recording outside…