Help me to solve the mystery rubbing noise...

Nazbit

Nazbit

Nazbit

Soldato
Joined
11 Dec 2004
Posts
3,871
Hi all,

Well I’m in Spain at the moment (not far from Barcelona) and I will be driving up to Santander tomorrow to catch the ferry and then straight up to Liverpool from Plymouth, so a bit of a drive.

The problem is though, there is a strange noise coming from the rear drivers side wheel of the car. It started about 3 days ago and has gradually become louder.

The car is a 53 plate for mondeo, (Serviced with main dealer in July, MOT due in september) The sound is like a rubbing or grinding noise and its pretty regular, more or less once per rotation of the wheel. It slows down and speeds up with the speed of the car.

I have had a good look at the tyre and there is nothing obvious stuck in the tread, and the pressures are all good.

I doubt its the suspension because the noise seems to be very much related to the speed of the car and the turning of the wheel, not to the road surface or anything else.

My guess is that it may be coming from the brakes and the pad is just catching the disk and rubbing or something. The car has been parked on a relatively steep slope for the week so I wonder if perhaps the handbrake has somehow put stress on the rear brake and causing it to be miss aligned or something. There are no unusual lines or marks on the disk itself though.

It doesn’t seem to be affecting the cars performance in anyway way, everything feels very normal, but interestingly the sound is not there when braking or when reversing.

Basically as you have probably gathered, my mechanical knowledge is slightly less than zero, I’m interested in your opinions on what might be causing the noise and whether or not its worth trying to get it checked somewhere before the drive home.

I’ve included everything that I can think of that might be relevant, let me know if there’s anything else.

Cheers
 
More likely a dodgy wheel bearing.. Have you had any meetings with a kerb or heavy pot-holes recently?

You'd know if the discs were warped as you'd feel it through the brake pedal when slowing down. It *could* be the hand-brake mechanism has seized slightly so is rubbing on the discs but I wouldnt imagine this should be the case on an '53 reg car!
 
I'm not sure if the mondeo uses drums for the hand brake but if it does then these are the likely culprit.
 
Wheel bearing.
The heat has dried it out i would say. Check replace etc.
To see how bad it is and to confirm it is the bearing Jack that corner up and hold the wheel firmly at 9 and 3 o clock. Then try to rattle/move the wheel by pushing and pulling your arms. Any movement indicates worn bearing.
 
i have a rear wheel bearing gone on my 54 plate mondeo, however that is a droaning sound that increases with speed , possibly as others have said the bearing has gone dry. my guess would be a sticking rear caliper due to being parked up, ours did this when we first had it and it lasted for a few days.
 
If the rear disk is rubbing the wheel will get hot, sounds like the bearing or could be a stone in the pad, check the disk for score marks.
 
I reckon it's a stone wedged in somewhere, like said, wheelbearings make rumbly grindy noises :D
 
Jonny69 said:
I reckon it's a stone wedged in somewhere, like said, wheelbearings make rumbly grindy noises :D
Click to expand...

Not always tbh, my parents focus had a dodgy wheel bearing and we only realised because on the motorway we could hear a whining sound. Granted, when they get totally fubar'd they start to grind and rumble (mate had an old nova and the rear bearing had all but disintegrated :eek: THAT rumbled!)
 
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