Afternoon Guys,

Abit of a strange one really. Not sure if its me being paranoid or not but i've seemed to notice a droning noise whilst driving over ~40mph.

Now, the car has just reached 67k and is a 2005. (i know this is pretty irrelevant).

If i'm driving and press the clutch pedal in the noise is still present.

Gearbox selects gears fine and i wouldn't call it "notchy"

Now, i'm thinking either wheel bearing (s), or diff maybe?

Bought some gearbox oil ready to change but didn't have the right allen key to whip the fill and drain plug off.

No knocking or banging, car still pulls like a train and there's no grinding noises when turning the wheel.

Forgot to mention the droning's coming from the front of the car and isn't present below 40mph.

Any advice would be great!

Wheel bearing. When over 40mph (safely) turn left and right and see if the sound changes.

I'd think probably a wheel bearing too, having just had one go myself.

I get a droning, whining noise whenever I hit 80mph. It seems to come from the passenger seat...

40mph sounds like front wheel bearing for sure.

does it increase when cornering left or right? If so almost definitely wheel bearing

Thanks for the input guys. The noise doesn't increase no, well i've not noticed anyway. Might just get them replaced anyway see if that cures the problem.

Anyone know of a part number off the top of their heads? lol.

Wheel bearings need a press to get them in and out, make sure you go to someone you trust as it's easy to damage the abs rings

Sent from my Galaxy S2 not a Crapple!

Oh and the MOT's just been done, surely they would of flagged it up?

Could also be a badly wearing tyre too..... before going to the expense of changing wheel bearings, you could try swapping the wheels front to back.... if tyre related, the noise might move to the rear, if it remains at the front then more likely to be bearings.

Unless you had a press, bearings are best left to a garage, as it is all too easy to damage/break the ABS rings (apparently).

Does it change pitch with acceleration?

Thanks for your replies.

Just been to a local garage and i explained the situation and straight away he started looking at my tyres, going round each one until he examined the rear drivers tyre and said it was mis-shaped / uneven and this could be causing the noise and would be better starting off swapping them before i go balls deep and splash out on 2 new front wheel bearings.

The thing is, i've recently had my front passenger alloy changed as it has a buckle in it to which i swapped for the spare. Abit of a coincidence that this is around the time the noise became apparent.

Question is i don't have a decent alloy with a good tyre on so it will be hard to diagnose the problem.

It does change pitch with acceleration yes and is apparent past 35mph.

Not sure where to start swapping these wheels over. The noise wasn't apparent with the buckled alloy on the car so might revert back to how it was before as a start and see what happens.

Also forgot to mention, whils't turning the wheel clockwise about 15deg (1 o clock) the pitch also changes at speed, almost like a bike tyre rubbing on something. Bare in mind i've physically checked that its not catching anything on the inside of the tyres.

I get whirring, cheap tyres.