A new noise from my car

[arobson90]

Ok so on Tuesday night driving home from work I noticed a noise, the best way a can describe it is a whirring / drone.

It starts at around 20mph and then stays there, the tone changes slightly with speed. It does not go away when the clutch is dipped, or when the wheel is turned and it does not disappear as you go faster. It is very loud, I can hear it over the stereo and air con etc.

The cars going into the garage over the weekend for them to have a look, but just wondered if anyone had any thoughts?

 

[jetty]

Tyres comes to mind - how much tread have you got ?

 

[arobson90]

Tyres comes to mind - how much tread have you got ?

About 3-4mm left on them. My initial thought was wheel bearing.

 

[rum4mo]

About 3-4mm left on them. My initial thought was wheel bearing.

Well when that sort of noise appeared in my old Passat 4Motion, I got a bit concerned and thought that it might even be coming from the gearbox/diff at the front, I swopped over to my summer tyres, noise still there, booked it in and got VW to replace both front wheel bearings if that was where the noise was coming from - and they did and the noise disappeared, though at next MOT (same VW dealer), I got an advisory concerning the NSF flexible brake pipe! I checked that brake pipe, it was cut up a bit and then I replaced the flexi brake pipes all round and while doing that discovered a chopped up front brake wear lead cunningly tapped back into the wiring loom along with an FOS drive shaft gaiter cut and leaking - so, check your car over very well after this bearing change, and maybe like me, you might want to replace the other side as well!

Edit:- I'm guessing that the NSF hub had dropped while being worked on and the brake pipe "caught" it after the brake wear wiring failed to do so!!

 

[Markey]

Tyres comes to mind - how much tread have you got ?

Agreed, what brand tyres are they some have a terrible drone which sounds like a bearing once you get down to the lower mm.

 

[scotty76]

Like some others I vote for tyres. Used to happen to my Leon Cupra when they got low. Sounded like a wheel bearing but new tyres sorted it every time.

 

[arobson90]

Agreed, what brand tyres are they some have a terrible drone which sounds like a bearing once you get down to the lower mm.

They are ContiSport Contact 2. Just been out to check tread, just under 3mm.

 

[Audi-partner]

I'm surprised to see most pretty much ruling out the wheel bearings in favour of low Tyre tread. Granted your down to 3mm, but I'd still take it to get the bearings checked.

I had the same noise coming from the rear, took it into Audi and both rear wheel bearings replaced under warranty last week. My car has just under 60K. What mileage has yours? If similar, definitely worth getting checked out.

 

[arobson90]

I'm surprised to see most pretty much ruling out the wheel bearings in favour of low Tyre tread. Granted your down to 3mm, but I'd still take it to get the bearings checked.

I had the same noise coming from the rear, took it into Audi and both rear wheel bearings replaced under warranty last week. My car has just under 60K. What mileage has yours? If similar, definitely worth getting checked out.

Hi yes I was surprised at that too. Car has 43k on, I bought it with 38k in November. It's going in tomorrow anyway and they have it till Monday. I'm hoping it is the wheel bearings as 1. It's still under warranty and 2. I'm looking for some 19 inch alloys so don't want to fork out for tyres on mine.

 

[desertstorm]

From what you say I would go with the wheel bearing. Sounds a bit like a second world war fighter
here's a video I took. The noise was louder than what the phone picked up.
Wheel bearings are quite common on the A4 / A5 apparently . I am sure mine started about a week after I hit quite a big pothole in the road.

 

[arobson90]

From what you say I would go with the wheel bearing. Sounds a bit like a second world war fighter
here's a video I took. The noise was louder than what the phone picked up.

Yeah that's the one. Even the Mrs noticed it and she wouldn't noticed if the wheels had come off!

 

[Meemo]

I had the same symptom sound and was a wheel bearing, left it for 6 months and became unbearably loud in the cabin.
If you want to check without a garage, put the car on a jack, and free spin each wheel as fast as you can with your hands, You will hear if they wheel bearing is gone fudged, mine sounded like a helicopter on the wheel that caused it.
If none of them make the sound then move on to tyres

 

[desertstorm]

That only works when it becomes really bad. I tried that with mine and without any load on they spin fine with no noise at all. I concluded mine had to be a wheel bearing and was the front offside from the direction the noise was coming from .
When I took it to the garage the put the car on a 4 poster ramp and one person span the wheel whilst another listened with a mechanics stethoscope on the hub. Even this was not 100% conclusive as they said both fronts were noisy however the offside was worse.
As I had bought only 1 bearing and it sounded like just one to me thats the one that was changed.

 

[Zafi]

Change both bearings as the other will soon fail.

 

[desertstorm]

I will wait till it starts humming, The one that was faulty was changed back in September last year.

 

[arobson90]

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner! Nice wheel bearing, under warranty so happy days!