Wheel bearing sense check
Discussion
For some reason I can never get this the right way round in my head - if my car makes a roaring/droning/howling noise when I’m gojng straight on, gets louder when turning right, and quietens down when I’m turning left, is that (likely) to be wheelbearing failure on the left hand side of the car? Similarly there is also a slight rotational clunk that can be felt when turning right. No play in either bearing when jacked up. Slight in and and out play in the right hand front driveshaft (I did wonder whether it was a driveshaft)
Car is a discovery 4, 150,000 miles so at the age that they all “seem” to have wheel bearing failure at the front!
Car is a discovery 4, 150,000 miles so at the age that they all “seem” to have wheel bearing failure at the front!
You cannot rule out either side or none at all, you'd swear there was a failing bearing on my Forester the second the winter tyres go on, soon as the summer set goes back on the noise disappears till next season.
Decades ago helped a mate swap one front wheel bearing on his then Peug 305, no change, turned out to be the inner race failing on the opposite side.
Decades ago helped a mate swap one front wheel bearing on his then Peug 305, no change, turned out to be the inner race failing on the opposite side.
Some cars can have tyres that suffer from “sawtoothing” often on the inner edges of the back wheels. I was told this happens because the inner sides of the tyres scrub more on turns.
They can cause a proper howl - enough for my A5 to fail its MOT for bad rear wheel bearing. It wasn’t the wheel bearings it was the tyres. With the tracking checked and new tyres - no more howl!
They can cause a proper howl - enough for my A5 to fail its MOT for bad rear wheel bearing. It wasn’t the wheel bearings it was the tyres. With the tracking checked and new tyres - no more howl!
Do you have a spare set of tyres to check?
My Hilux has steadily been getting louder between about 45 and 60 over the last couple of years, particularly when cornering and twice I mentioned it to the garage when dropping it off for a service and was told that it was just the tyres.
Eventually it got to the point where I didn't believe them and was actually worried that a bearing was about to collapse or something so put the original road tyres back on to confirm - amazingly, complete silence!
There's plenty of tread on the BFG ATs and they look perfectly fine but after almost 90k miles they howl along the road road like crazy for some reason. New set coming soon but in the meantime I just drive faster!
My Hilux has steadily been getting louder between about 45 and 60 over the last couple of years, particularly when cornering and twice I mentioned it to the garage when dropping it off for a service and was told that it was just the tyres.
Eventually it got to the point where I didn't believe them and was actually worried that a bearing was about to collapse or something so put the original road tyres back on to confirm - amazingly, complete silence!
There's plenty of tread on the BFG ATs and they look perfectly fine but after almost 90k miles they howl along the road road like crazy for some reason. New set coming soon but in the meantime I just drive faster!
Triumph Man said:
For some reason I can never get this the right way round in my head - if my car makes a roaring/droning/howling noise when I’m gojng straight on, gets louder when turning right, and quietens down when I’m turning left, is that (likely) to be wheelbearing failure on the left hand side of the car? Similarly there is also a slight rotational clunk that can be felt when turning right. No play in either bearing when jacked up. Slight in and and out play in the right hand front driveshaft (I did wonder whether it was a driveshaft)
Car is a discovery 4, 150,000 miles so at the age that they all “seem” to have wheel bearing failure at the front!
I had exactly the same scenario and theory as you, but it turned out to be the opposite bearing which needed replacing. Car is a discovery 4, 150,000 miles so at the age that they all “seem” to have wheel bearing failure at the front!
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