Hi All,

My wife’s ’55 plate Octy 4x4 TDi has developed a worrying scraping/squealing sound from the rear nearside wheel (passenger side) – it has only appeared since the snow/ice spell – we used the car a lot during the bad weather due to our drive being on a slope and my Fabia vRS getting stuck in the garage.

When standing outside the car, it almost sometimes sounds like the exhaust is scraping on the floor (that loud) when driving at slow speed, above 10mph sometimes it’s silent. I drove the car yesterday and it seems to only happen ‘off load’, i.e. when going round a left hand turn it will be noisy but then when going round a right hand turn, silent. Although it does make a squeeking/scraping noise when going in a straight line most of the time too. The brakes seem to work fine and the car feels normal except for these noises.

Is it the wheel bearing? The car has only covered 45,000 miles. If it could be something serious I want it sorted asap, this is the car my wife uses daily with our 3 month old and 5 year old daughters in the back.

Opinions welcome!

Cheers,

Dan

Edited 25 January, 201016 yr by Race Blue vRS

I had this once on my old Polo - turned out to be a stone in the caliper - should go after a few hundred miles! Doubt it would be a wheel bearing as you usually hear these first at a higher speed then a lower speed as they get worse.

take the wheel off and have a look - spin the hub and see if you can hear it.

I had this once on my old Polo - turned out to be a stone in the caliper - should go after a few hundred miles! Doubt it would be a wheel bearing as you usually hear these first at a higher speed then a lower speed as they get worse.

take the wheel off and have a look - spin the hub and see if you can hear it.

Will do that, cheers. Hopefully it is just a stone.

Edited 25 January, 201016 yr by Race Blue vRS

I was thinking that too; the big issue with a stone under the dust shield is that they can score the disc.

Had this too, a really loud agonising echoing screeching noise. Like an empty barrel getting scraped along the road.

turned out to be a tiny little stone caught between the shield and the rear brake disk. Flicked it out with a screwdriver.

It's the most disproportionate noise.

I don't know if it's the same on the newfangled modern cars, but you used to be able to check wheel bearings by trying to rock the wheel side to side - if there was more movement than normal then this would indicate an issue with the bearing.

But hopefully it's just a trapped stone

Phil, I've been told that the "rock test" (there's more to it, but it's not relevant if this is accurate) doesn't work on Octys because of the type of wheel bearings used.

Only other thing it might be is a CV joint if it happens while you're turning but is silent while going straight. I'd definitely check the caliper for stones first.