Got all 4 tyres changed a few weeks ago and have since noticed a droning sound that starts to become noticeable about 50mph. Increases in volume and changes pitch with increasing speed. Clutch engaged or not, and even out of gear makes no difference. Also don't notice any difference based on road surface, when cornering or braking.

Does this sound like wheel bearings ?

Does it happen on all road surfaces?

Does it happen on all road surfaces?

As far as I can tell.

What tyres did you have and what tyres are fitted now?

I had exactly the same symptoms once and it turned out to be a wheel bearing .

What tyres did you have and what tyres are fitted now?

I had the original ones on the back, not sure what they were, Toyo TR1's on the front. The new ones are all Toyo TR1's.

The noise appears to be coming from the front but I could be wrong.

I had a droning noise from front wheel bearing failing - started to hear it around 25-30mph but above 40 or so the road and engine noise would start to drown it out. Please don't ask me to describe the sound!!

I had a droning sound on the front of the car when I got, turned out to be the cheap tires that were on the front of the car. Replaced them with Kuhmo's and been fine ever since.

I take it you've checked the tyre pressures. I've known new tyres to be out by as much as 15psi!!

Could be they didn't balance the wheels or just put the weights in the wrong place.

Find a nice long straight road (downhill would be good). Get up to speed and turn the engine off (make sure you don't lock the column). This will give you a much better idea where the noise is coming from.

You could always just take it back to where you got the tyres and have them check.

if its only since the tyre change then I dont think the wheel bearing will be the problem.

I think its just these tyres being more noisy than the previous ones. Different tyres generate different road noise, some more than others especially when the tyres are new. The noise should get quieter after about 1K miles.

In my opinion it's a bearing problem. If your old front tyres were the same as your new front tyres then there shouldn't be a difference in road noise. I know the Conti Sport 2 make more noise as the tread wears off but I've not heard of this with any other manufacturers and they tend to make the extra noise from much slower speeds.

SWMBO's fabia developed a humming noise which only became noticable above 20mph and it turned out to be the offside front wheel bearing.

If you can, jack the car up and spin the front wheels, see if one side sounds different from the other, if so it's likely to be the bearing

A bit more info ... After some more testing the noise gets slightly louder and changes tone when I turn left.

Thanks for all the input so far.

As the noise increases when turning left, it sound like drivers side as that will be loading through left hand corners. Could try swapping this one for the spare wheel (assuming original tyre still, i.e. it won't be a Toyo TR1) - if exactly the same noise happens still then you can rule out the tyre being the cause. Might be a phaf changing the wheels over though, but also gives a chance to spin it by hand as Matt@theforce is suggesting above.

I changed from 4 Eagle F1's to 4 PZero Neros and the noise from the Pirrellis is a constant droaning coming mainly from the rear, gets right on yer titz after a while!

If yours only started once the tyres were changed its pretty likely its them that are making the noise.

You mention that the noise increases when you turn. Sounds like the wheel baring then as i noticed it when mine went when i went round roundabouts!

Just to say thanks for all the info ... It was indeed a wheel bearing had it replaced ... now off to get my works workshop to fabricate me a bearing puller and press so I can do it myself next time - garage costs were ridiculous :eek:

Did you watch the tyres get changed? Or was it done when you had other work done to the car? If the wheel bearing started causing problems after someone else was doing the work I'd be cautious of how they carried out the work.

Unless you did it yourself.

Did you watch the tyres get changed? Or was it done when you had other work done to the car? If the wheel bearing started causing problems after someone else was doing the work I'd be cautious of how they carried out the work.

Unless you did it yourself.

Don't get me started - too late

I'll not be going back to the garage in question, the tyres only cost me £100 because they'd done some work on my wifes car which resulted in me complaining and getting a discount. A spring had snapped and punctured a tyre so they replaced the springs - resulting in a broken windscreen and a knocking from the suspension, from the other side to the broken spring. Fast forward about 4 weeks, and a huge saga of attempted repairs, and I'd paid for a new set of dampers, since somehow one of the dampers had developed a huge amount of lateral play in the shaft between the spring breaking and them replacing it :(

When we complained to the Management they offered to take the price of the replacement dampers off a set of tyres for my Octavia. I'd already decided I'd not be going back but thought "Its only a set of tyres, what can they do wrong" - I have no evidence that it was their work, bearings can go off very rapidly, and it took me a few weeks to actually notice since I usually listen to the radio which could have masked the noise initially, but equally it might not have.

It is a shame. I'd started using them since when they fitted my last set of tyres I'd watched, was impressed with there methods and they had even known what the painted dots on the tyres meant ... this time they appear to forgotten this too :(