Any ideas: wheel bearing?

thebrasso · 10 Mar 2006 at 13:00

My car makes an annoying whine when above 30mph..its got a bit louder in the last two weeks. Its not a grating/scraping sound, and the car drives fine so I'm not unduly worried. It sounds a bit like a wheelbearing, having heard one on a mates car before.

At first I thought it could be the gearbox, but it if I'm doing say 50mph in 4th and come off the gas it is still there..but will go away when I slow down. So that rules out the gearbox in my mind. What do you reckon?

Any way to check the bearing myself? Its in for a service next week, but I was thinking jack it up and manually turn the wheel, I should hear it then shouldn't I?

Anything else you think it could be? It sounds like a drivers side front wheel. But the sound definitely sounds like it comes from the front of the car.

thebrasso · 10 Mar 2006 at 17:49

Any ideas guys? If say it was an axle problem, would it show up in some other way like something noticeable when I applied the brakes?

GT3 · 10 Mar 2006 at 18:14

If the noise gets louder and quieter with speed and not revs then I'd say its the wheel bearing, as I think driveshafts tend to click rather than squeel.

Dogbreath · 10 Mar 2006 at 18:19

thebrasso said:
Any ideas guys? If say it was an axle problem, would it show up in some other way like something noticeable when I applied the brakes?

Generaly no, unless the wheel bearing was in a really bad way when you get pad "knock off", and the brake pedal travel increases.

Wheels bearing are notoriously hard to pin point, they can often seem to be comming from a different wheel to the actual fault. One way to pin this down is to note if the sounds gets quiter or louder as you corner. A noisy bearing will usualy get noiser under more load, so if you turn left and it gets noisier, suspect the right hand wheel, and vice versa.

If the bearing is particularly tired you may be able to feel some movement. Jack car up and hold top and bottom of wheel (i.e. 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock) and give it a good push and pull and see if you can feel/hear any movement.

Regards

Mike

Iceman · 10 Mar 2006 at 18:23

Dogbreath said:
Wheels bearing are notoriously hard to pin point, they can often seem to be comming from a different wheel to the actual fault. One way to pin this down is to note if the sounds gets quiter or louder as you corner. A noisy bearing will usualy get noiser under more load, so if you turn left and it gets noisier, suspect the right hand wheel, and vice versa.

Mike

In most cases is correct but not always

Best way is to jack up each corner spin each wheel in turn
Maybe enough to hear a faulty bearing also check for any excessive play

thebrasso · 10 Mar 2006 at 18:23

Aye, revs don't seem to have any impact. It seems to be purely how fast I am going. I'm just hoping its not something like an axle problem or a CV joint. Or anything suspension related because that could turn expensive.

Altered Corpse · 10 Mar 2006 at 18:25

Could also be the tyres. I had a whine that started off at 30mph and got extremely loud when doing 80mph+. Happened to get a flat and ended up replacing both rear tyres which cured the problem. Funny though as the noise really sounded like it was comming from the front.

Anyway, try jacking the car up and check for play and if you can re-produce the noise. If you can't it may be worth getting the tyres changed.

thebrasso · 10 Mar 2006 at 18:27

Cheers, I'll try jacking it up. It sounds like a drivers side front wheel. The fact I can only hear it from 30mph onwards says wheel bearing to me.

thedazman67 · 10 Mar 2006 at 18:46

I had a terrible whine u mention on my old car, i removed the wheel manual turn it and imediately diagnose it was the wheel bearing.

thedazman