Drumming noise/vibration from front - odd problem, any ideas?

[DubSteve68]

I've recently picked up a mk1 LC and it's got an unusual drumming/vibration coming from the front. It's not a constant vibration or drone that I would associate with a wheel bearing, dodgy tyre, gearbox or engine issue. The vibration comes in pulses, sort of d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d---------------------d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-------------- and so on. It's particularly noticeable on the motorway, although it's not overly noisy, and it can be felt through the steering wheel but it doesn't affect the steering itself.

Apart from the noise coming in on/off pulses, what's foxing me is that the frequency of the noise doesn't seem directly connected with wheel speed and certainly isn't connected to engine speed - however the frequency of the vibration pulses definitely is connected to overall road speed.

I've heard that certain brands of tyre can cause vibration issues, but again I would expect this to be a continuous noise or vibration rather than coming in pulses.

Now, I had the car serviced last week at my local (trusted) garage and I asked them to see if they could find anything, but on collecting the car they said there was nothing obviously wrong and to just keep driving the car until the issue became more pronounced.

Has anybody else come across this issue? I'm in the Blackburn/Burnley area if anyone can help me out.

Cheers, DubSteve

 

[Seatmann]

I would try holding the throttle down at different rev points and see if it's some quirk with the engine. Another thing I would do would be to jack up the front of the car and place it on axle stands, start it then put it in 5th gear and gently let the clutch out while giving it some revs, gradually increase the revs and see if the vibration occurs but make sure the car is secure on the axle stands then if the vibration happens, you could have someone have a look at the wheels from the side to check for more clues. It might help to narrow things down.

 

[shaneseat]

my last leon turned out the plastic cover underneath the engine was vibrating ?

 

[DubSteve68]

Thanks for the replies chaps. Unfortunately (as the title says) it's an odd one and not quite so simple. All the undertray stuff seems secure (ta shaneseat), and like I said initially, this is a regular pulsed vibration, like you would expect if you were to drive over several equally spaced groups of horizontal lines painted on the road like...

|||||.....|||||.....|||||.....|||||..... etc.

I've double checked and it's definitely not connected to engine speed or its ancillaries. I think Seatmann's suggestion of getting the car on stands is the way to go, when I get chance and bound to be great fun in the snow and ice.

Thing is most problems which involve noise or vibration are very regular and constant, or are completely intermittent. Anyone who's worked on cars for a few years will be able to associate certain sounds with certain components and their respective running speeds and narrow things down fairly quickly. A friend came round yesterday with his '05 Fester which was making a sort of beeping noise from the front of the car. He thought it might be a belt and was panicking about until I pointed out the noise was coming from the headlight and was almost certainly the headlight adjuster - and a twiddle of the adjuster switch confirmed this. Easy.

The problem with mine has me foxed though as it's not purely related to wheel rotational speed as you would expect with a wheel bearing or balancing issue. I'm hoping it's not something horrible (and expensive) like an impending gearbox failure of some sort although everything seems to be smooth as silk in that department. Not that it probably makes any difference but the car is in great shape, full history and has obviously been looked after generally. Aaaaaargh!

Cheers, DS

 

[DubSteve68]

Inner CV problem?

Has anyone had any issues with inner CV joints on their Leons? Inner CV problems are rare (I've not had problems in 23 years of driving FWD cars) but they can occur. Reason I'm wondering is (as outlined above) the noise and vibration is related to road speed but doesn't have the characteristic drone of a worn wheel bearing. Also the characteristic clicking of a worn outer CV joint isn't there. This doesn't leave many other components that could make sick noises like mine is making.

Now I've been searching and searching and last night came across a post on an Audi forum that very closely described my problem and someone suggested a worn inner CV could cause the sort of noise and vibration that's currently afflicting my shed.

So, back to the top, (and before I start pulling my car to bits) has anyone else had inner CV problems?

Cheers all, DubSteve

 

[t32er]

i know Sam (Pyro) had a cv joint problem on his car, could be work poking him about it, i think he changed it him self too..
going to be a bit of a curve ball i know but have you checked the coil packs??
when i had 1 semi bust on my old cupra it mas a little on and off, made the car rumbel like going over things in the road and never showed a code on a vag com drove me mad for weeks but then it gave its self up and made my car sound like a subaru

 

[DubSteve68]

Cheers Terry,

Unfortunately the noise is definitely mechanical and seems to be getting noticeably worse with each trip to work. I'm hoping it's a CV or wheel bearing (although it doesn't sound like the usual wheel bearing drone), and not impending gearbox failure. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure it's something knackered in the final section of the drivetrain. Whatever the problem, it doesn't seem to be a common issue, I'm just praying that nothing goes bang before I get the chance to fettle it.

Ta, DubSteve

 

[thePadster]

I had a similar problem to yourself with my BMW 320i. Horrible noise that came and went and drove you mad, but couldn't be found no matter what or where you looked. I too thought it could be mechanical.
In the end it was the tyres. You may already have looked at your tyres but it might be worth another look. The reason I say this is because I look at the tyres I had and all seemed well until a trip across to the Nurburg Ring. The tyres got progressively worse as I travelled on the motorways for a prolonged period of time. The heat put into the tyres distorted them more and more. Only 2 tyre suffered but all were the same brand: Pirelli P6000. Both tyres were like a 50 pence piece when inspected.
Apologies if you've already been down the tyre road, but I thought it was worth a mention.

 

[DubSteve68]

That's definitely something worth checking, tyres look ok at a glance but I've not checked them closely. I also noticed on my drive to work this morning that the noise seems to vary slightly with the steering angle, which also kinda points towards the tyres, maybe a wear/tracking issue.

I'm a noob to the Leon/mk4 platform and don't know exactly how a sorted Cupra should feel, but the steering on mine is all over the place in this latest round of snow and ice. Are they all as bad as this? I'm wondering if this connected to the noise and vibration issue or if it's something else altogether.

Cheers, DubSteve

 

[Alexis27]

Dodgy wheel bearings can make a variety of noises.

Anything from your d-d-d-d-d-d to a light sabre style wvrooom-wvrooom.

I'm a noob to the Leon/mk4 platform and don't know exactly how a sorted Cupra should feel, but the steering on mine is all over the place in this latest round of snow and ice. Are they all as bad as this?

Wide, low tread tyres are poor in snow and ice. It's the same on any car.

Narrow, heavily grooved tyres are much better as the weight is spread over a smaller area and get more bite.

See how narrow rally snow tyres are:

 

[t32er]

you wana get a set of space savers on there

 

[Slimy]

I would also blame the tyres. Having had all sorts of unpleasant noises coming from mine, a simple change of tyres cured them all.

Having said that, I did briefly have an inner CV joint problem due to a cack handed suspension change, I had to get into the boot and repack it. But that only showed up when turning a corner, driving straight didn't show any symptoms.

 

[Mark300zx]

Did you get this sorted in the end, I think I may have the same problem?

 

[DubSteve68]

No mate the problem is ongoing, hopefully to get sorted as soon as the festering season is over. I did manage to find an hour during the week to get el shedo on a mate's four-post lift for a proper good inspection.

Seems like the N/S outer CV boot has split and it's shat out most if not all of its grease so that needs sorting even if it's not the cause of the noise and vibration. The O/S inner CV seems to be leaking grease too as it's left a telltale line of black on the CV shield plate. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to get wheels off the ground to check for excess play in the drive shafts/CVs, but this is the next thing on my agenda time and weather permitting.

DubSteve

 

[DubSteve68]

Dodgy wheel bearings can make a variety of noises.

Anything from your d-d-d-d-d-d to a light sabre style wvrooom-wvrooom.



Wide, low tread tyres are poor in snow and ice. It's the same on any car.

Narrow, heavily grooved tyres are much better as the weight is spread over a smaller area and get more bite.

See how narrow rally snow tyres are:

Finally sorted! Looks like it was a killer combination of tracking misalignment and a dodgy wheel bearing.

I did wonder about the 225 width tyres at the time but had a gut feeling something else was wrong. Turns out the tracking was out by a mile causing the unpredictable handling on snow and ice (as the wheels really were trying to pull the car in two different directions), but the odd thing was everything felt ok in the dry and the car didn't pull to either side. Once the tracking was sorted the rumbling noise became a lot quieter, sometimes disappearing altogether.

The guy who did the tracking said he suspected it would be a wheel bearing issue but he couldn't pinpoint which side as although he'd had a good tug and a swing on both wheels everything felt tight and smooth. To be on the safe side I told him to replace both sides in one go and it's done the trick. Looks like the problem was a couple of rollers in one of the bearing assemblies, which is why the noise was more intermittent than the constant drone I would expect from a worn bearing.

Anyway thanks for all the answers guys, most appreciated.

DubSteve