Opinions Please - Suspect Wheel Bearing

thescouselander

I've just been in my OH's Renault Megane and I noticed that there was a Humming noise coming from the rear of the car at certain speeds. The noise seems to be related to road speed and is independent of engine speed so I have discounted the possibility of a leaking exhaust.

The noise appears at around 50 mph and again at around 70 mph. I checked the wheel for any heat after a long drive but there is no excess heat evident.

I haven't been able to jack up the car to check for any play in the bearing due to the weather but I'd appreciate some opinions - is the bearing likely to be shot?

steveo3002

wheel bearing or a tyre gone out of shape, seen alot of tyres wear funny on the rear

porsche289

had the wheel bearings go in a couple of different cars ive had.
I always noticed it more when going round corners, a knocking noise, but on straight runs it presented itself as a hummimg with a slight grinding noise throught the seat.
Ideally you need to jack it up and see if there is play but even then there doesnt have to be play in the wheel for the bearing to be shot.

anewman

And to add on to porsche289, when jacked up, handbrake off in first gear - spin the wheel as fast as you can and stick your ear near to the centre and listen for a noise there.

vaio

As others have said bearings tend to get noisier going round right or left corners and tend not to disappear at certain speeds.

To rule out the tyres you could swap the tyres front to back…if the noise follows the tyres look at the tyres, if it doesn’t then look at the hubs.

cheekyweegit

I notice a lot of folks are suggesting it's the bearing on your car, for me when I was getting a strange humming noise (sounded a bit like a flying saucer - don't laugh) where the noise got louder the faster I drove and stopped completely when the car stopped.

A trip the next day to the local garage found my coil spring had burst and the humming noise was the spring rubbing against my tyre. Luckily it was only a matter of weeks before I'd fitted new tyres and I was very lucky I hadn't been doing any great speeds in the car 30mph max as the spring rubbing could've caused a blow out at any time.

The burst coil spring was probably caused by the state of the roads up here in Dundee (lots of lovely large potholes up here!) and it also damaged my shock absorber too, but thanks to Bob (your a star) the mechanic at the local garage again he painstakingly rebuilt my shocker to save me having to buy a new one.

My advice, don't drive your car far at all and get it checked out ASAP for your safety and others.

Hope this helps.

PS If it's any help I've got an R reg 97 plate Ford Mondeo and it cost me £67 to get the coil spring including the fitting.

PPS It was my nearside (passenger) front coil spring that had gone.

thescouselander

cheekyweegit wrote: »

I notice a lot of folks are suggesting it's the bearing on your car, for me when I was getting a strange humming noise (sounded a bit like a flying saucer - don't laugh) where the noise got louder the faster I drove and stopped completely when the car stopped.

A trip the next day to the local garage found my coil spring had burst and the humming noise was the spring rubbing against my tyre. Luckily it was only a matter of weeks before I'd fitted new tyres and I was very lucky I hadn't been doing any great speeds in the car 30mph max as the spring rubbing could've caused a blow out at any time.

The burst coil spring was probably caused by the state of the roads up here in Dundee (lots of lovely large potholes up here!) and it also damaged my shock absorber too, but thanks to Bob (your a star) the mechanic at the local garage again he painstakingly rebuilt my shocker to save me having to buy a new one.

My advice, don't drive your car far at all and get it checked out ASAP for your safety and others.

Hope this helps.

PS If it's any help I've got an R reg 97 plate Ford Mondeo and it cost me £67 to get the coil spring including the fitting.

PPS It was my nearside (passenger) front coil spring that had gone.

Thanks for your reply - it cant be a broken coil spring because this car has torsion beam suspension (I believe) so there is no coil to break.


Everone else - thanks four suggestions, hopefully the weather will clear up so I can get out and have a proper look.