just wondering guys ive had a problem now for a few weeks , ive changed track rod ends and front tyres , ive checked wheel bearings and dosent seem to be any play or noise coming from them , but still ive a bearing ( drowning type of noise ) garage has checked everything and cant find nothing wrong , its starting to drive me nuts . when i turn left and right theres no difference to the noise . can anyone offer advice please ? car is a taxi and currently on 490,000 miles. and its the sdi model .

Tyre out of round? Do you have a mate you could swap wheels and tyres with to see if the noise moves cars?

going to get them checked today , im just reading posts on that sawtoothing il get them checked today . thanks.

Sawtoothing normally only occurs on mk2s.

 

Easiest fix if that's the issue would be to swap the rear wheels side to side, thus reversing their direction of rotation.

driving at 50 turning left and right noise is worse in both sides when cornering .

could it be the hub itself ?

It could be hub bearings; they're easy enough to check by jacking the car up and rocking a wheel looking for play.

Funny this should come up, I've just had exactly the same problem.

 

It also more or less started about the same time as I had a new set of tyres fitted (changing from Mich PS3's to Falkens).

 

I know my car well as I've had her 5 years now, so I was sure there was a noise, albeit very faint. Again, it became a little more apparent at motorway speeds when gently steering left. However I could only really notice it on those lovely 'quiet' bits of tarmac you sometimes get on motorways for a bit.

 

I took it to my friend's garage last month - he drove the car, then put it up on a ramp, and we could find no play when rocking the front wheels. He laughed and said it was definitely the tyres...

 

 

Anyway last week I got so annoyed with it I took it back to my friends garage, and told him to replace both front wheel bearings. At least then I could start to eliminate probable causes.

 

Two new bearings = perfect, magic carpet ride restored

 

So...bearings don't have to exhibit any outward signs of wear to be on their way out!

it was a knackered osf wheel bearing , there was no play atol in it either as just passed test this week , all nice and quiet now thanks for replies :-))

just to add my garage thought it was tyres too .

This is spooky, in mine last couple of days I thought 'is this road noise louder than usual?' Wasn't sure if it was in my head, wind/weather, just certain surfaces or that I'd got the upper strut brace off following another job. Will definitely see how it plays out now the brace is back on, I now also suspect wheel bearings, seems more offside too funnily enough. Was going to get front discs done in spring, may bring that forward now and front bearings done as well. By the way there's no play in mine either.