noise from the front end speed related

[Ant FR]

Ok, on my cupra Tdi ihave had a droning noise from the front end.

Initially i thought it was Wheel bearings as i see they can be common problem on the mk4 and the car has covered 50k which is whel bearing territory. So i booked it in to seat and they said they checked the beaings and it was all ok, but they recoknoed it was the cv joint making the noise and they had replaced that instead. However the noise still remains, i have checked everything even changed tyres front to rear and checked and rechecked the pressures yet i still get this speed related drone from the front.

All i can think of is its still the wheel bearings as its still present when i depress the clutch and roll in neutral. Its becoming annoying and ruining my car at the moment for me. Coupled with the cold weather tractor noise i'm starting to remember how unrefined the 1.9Tdi is.

so any ideas on what else i could check, and its still under warranty till october next year but i hate taking it back to SEAT as they always try to pretend the problem is'nt there. Any ideas

 

[Pabs]

I've got a similar noise at the moment - turns out to be my tyres! Some very weird wearing on them - the middle of the tyres are worn more in some places than others - again, bearings and joints etc all checked and ok.

The problem wasn't noticable until I put some "part worn" tyres on the front - I recon the tyres were probably sh*gged before I put them on the car - but they came free with the car so I can't really complain.

 

[RUM4MO]

I had this sort of trouble with a 2000MY Passat 4Motion - and feared the worse - ie transmission (diff) problems, I also tried fitting some other (original) wheels with different ET (less "over hang") - the noise was a bit less. It did not change when "loading" each side - cornering - as it should have if it was wheel bearing, I had already cleaned up the brake discs and pads and "felt" the drive shafts. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that it was the front wheel bearings - mainly on one side but I opted for both sides to be changed - now noise has gone.

What did the repairing garage "make" of the fact that they had agreed that there was a noise, changed something and the noise still remains - did they think that that would have made you happy enough?

My noise was like the "whah whah" that 4X4s make when they are using off-road tyres - ie like Army trucks.

 

[NickyJam]

check the drive shaft...sometimes the lubrication around the teeth dries and when rolling in neutral can cause an in intermittent rubbing sound, but goes away when under acceleration

 

[Chriswaite130]

I've had this last week - got a mechanic to look at the wheel bearing and although upon inspection it looked fine, it wasnt. He checked the tyre pressures and the noise was still there, so replaced the bearing anyway and hey presto - no noise.

Does it do it louder going around a corner? My wheel bearing was front left and going around a right-hander it got pretty loud

 

[Ant FR]

I've had this last week - got a mechanic to look at the wheel bearing and although upon inspection it looked fine, it wasnt. He checked the tyre pressures and the noise was still there, so replaced the bearing anyway and hey presto - no noise.

Does it do it louder going around a corner? My wheel bearing was front left and going around a right-hander it got pretty loud

yeah it seems to be on slow lefts its quite bad. I've had wheel bearings go in the past and i know what they sound like, thats why i was shocked when they said it was the driveshaft etc. So i'll just take it to a more local dealer and let them sort it, was'nt too impressed with the dealer i got it from, they had less mechanical knowledge than me....lol

its just the hassle of going to the delaer and havign to book it all in etc, its becomes a bloody chore.

 

[Chriswaite130]

Lol sounds like all dealers are the same mate. Does it have to go to the dealer?

 

[Ant FR]

Lol sounds like all dealers are the same mate. Does it have to go to the dealer?

yeah cos its got another years warranty so i'm npt paying for it

 

[Nath.]

For what it's worth, I once had a really bad wheel bearing problem, so bad that when I turned left the vibrations made my rear view mirror shake. Anyway when I established that it was a front right bearing that was the problem (if you turn left the weight shifts to the right). I replaced the faulty bearing and it did indeed cure the fault. However when the bearing was in my hand I could spin it fine and it felt as smooth as you like. At speed these bearings are spinning quite fast so it's surprising how very little wear on a wheel bearing can make really loud noises.

I reckon your dealer jacked up your car, spun all 4 wheels by hand and said "they spin ok the bearings are fine"

 

[NickyJam]

I reckon your dealer jacked up your car, spun all 4 wheels by hand and said "they spin ok the bearings are fine"

most bodge garages do it this way...proper mechanics will try to disable the traction control (if applicable) and accelerate in gear with the wheel jacked up (obviously with the handbrake on )

 

[Nath.]

^^^^^Thing is though, doing that doesn't put any load/weight on the bearing.

 

[NickyJam]

^^^^^Thing is though, doing that doesn't put any load/weight on the bearing.

sorry, i was on about it being the drive shaft

 

[IainW]

I've got a droning noise too when I go over 30mph. It began just after the snowy weather last month, so I put it down to it being so cold that something had frozen. Left it until the thaw to get it looked at and in any case I couldn't get out of the street for 2 weeks, so had no choice.

It was still there after the thaw and I took it to a local small garage last week. A friend suggested it may be bearings (he has slightly more mechanical knowledge than me, which isn't much) and I asked them to check them. They said they were fine, but the noise was coming from the front brakes, where the sliders that the pads move along were stuck and basically the brakes were almost on all the time and the noise got worse as the car warmed up. The pads were worn to the metal in the centre almost. I did have a different noise whenever it was cold or damp under heavy braking and the new thicker pads have eradicated that, but the drone is still there. The mechanic told me that it was down to the low profile tyres, but I've never had as much roadnoise as that in 3 and a half years and I use the same type of tyre always.

Any suggestions? Still a possible bearing issue?

 

[RUM4MO]

If you have not been using your car a lot in this nasty weather over the past 5-6 weeks, then you might find that the discs are now corroded quite a bit and need some fierce use to clear them. My Passat seems to have that problem with discs that are only a year or so old - so I must clean them up (wife was using the car when ice made using her Polo with Pilot Exaltos just too exciting).

The front suspension area of the Polo did make quite a few horrible noises when it was initially back in use - but I'd think (hope) that that would be down to compacted lumps of snow and ice that had moved while thwaing partially then refroze - fingers crossed, winter tyres/wheels are on order.

Maybe have a look through the wheel spokes and you should see nice shiny discs - any dark marks will be corrosion that eventially should get cleared off one way or the other.