Was driving home from work the other day and had a momentary lapse of concentration at 30mph and kerb the nearside!!!!! Not a happy bunny!

Its chipped the alloy which i've been able to replace using the spare for the moment, but now have a dull thumping/rubbing type sound coming from the front. I cant see anything obvious rubbing and the car pulls/brakes straight and doesn't seem to have any play in the steering.

Any ideas before it goes to the garage for a no doubt expensive diagnosis and fix?

Pics (side and head-on) of the affected corner would help.

Yuu might possibly have bent a suspension arm or the damper tube, or the stub axle. You could look for any signs of wear on the tyre walls, or clean marks inside the wheel arch, and take known straight edges to the suspension links to test this.

Also you might have dislodged the driveshaft balance weight, or cut a driveshaft gaiter allowing water/grit ingress to a CV joint.

Did you kerb the wheel straight on or at an angle? If you ran straight over the kerb you may have got away with damage to the wheel rim only, at an angle there is more chance of other damage...

Don't rule out simple possibilities though, have you used the spare tyre before?

Could it just be a duff tyre on the spare (or one that has been repaired / flat spotted etc previously) making the noise? Try rotating it with another wheel (perhaps rear) and see if the noise moves?

Other possibility is a wheel bearing but I'd start with the cheapest / easiest things and go from there..

from looking straight/side on, there is no difference and if i put my hand on top of the tyre 12 oclock i ran reach behind so there is no rubbing there.

I hit it at approx10.30/11 oclock kind of angle so unfortunately not straight on. I've not used the spare before so will try this too, but the noise started as soon as i'd hit the kerb before i put the spare on.

I've looked at the track rod and drive shaft and cant see any obvious kinks, nicks etc. Im thinking possibly damaged the wheel bearing in some way as the noise is obviously due to something rotating and not vibrating as stationary/revving the noise isn't there.

i appreciate it hard to diagnose without seeing/hearing it. guess i'm just wanting some ideas so i can prepare myself for a hefty repair bill!!! I guess worse case scenario is driveshaft, best case is wheel bearing!

The annoying thing was i'd saved £350 for a remap (early xmas pressie) and now thats clearly gonna go elsewhere! Doh

..the noise started as soon as i'd hit the kerb before i put the spare on.

Ah, well that pretty much rules out the spare tyre being the culprit then!

Have a good look at the wheel that you've taken off, are there any signs of rubbing or contact on the inside of the rim?

If you jack up that corner and rotate the wheel can you feel any roughness (or play if you try to wobble it)?

As you say, hard to diagnose without seeing it but the wheel bearing must be a strong possibility..

Well took it into the garage and after an hour of up/down on the ramps and a test drive they couldn't put their finger on exactly what was wrong with it and causing the noise. They say there is a slight dragging on the disc or maybe a problem with the bearing, so are recommending changing both and seeing if that resolves it. Failing that they are at a complete loss!!! Awsome, bang goes then mod money, just as i was starting to get things done!

Are the bearings on octavias all the same or does the vrs have a different size? Just wondering if i can buy it off fleabay and get them to fit it as i'm sure this will be cheaper than them supplying.

Also does anyone know if these discs will fit/or have bought them. It says they're for a tdi vrs which i can only assume is the mk2 one, however the dimensions seem the same and they are obviously at an attractive price.

Octavia vRS TDi Drilled Grooved Brake Discs Front 04- on eBay (end time 17-Nov-09 12:47:19 GMT)

Thanks in advance

If the link you gave for the brake discs are for the mk2 Octavia, which I think It Is, the PCD of the stud holes will be wrong.

I bought some of these, direct from CRN themselfs, but zinc plated SKODA OCTAVIA VRS RS AUDI TT GROOVED BRAKE DISCS FRONT on eBay (end time 23-Nov-09 12:25:15 GMT)

If you phone them direct rather than buy on ebay & tell them your from this forum they will give 10% discount. It worked for me;)

Cheers for that, they look alright, how are they performing? What difference does the zinc plating make?

I currently have some CRN discs fitted & the performance has been great over the last 3yrs with mintex pads.

The ones I mentioned I only bought last week. I'm just saving some money now to tie things together with the fitment of the Porsche calipers I have bought, new rear bushes & a change of brake fluid.

The Zinc plating only stops rust forming on the disc that doesn't get used.