Booming sound

[StuartA]

Over the last couple of days, I've noticed a subdued booming whilst traveling at 30-40mph. I can't hear it when I open a window as it is drowned out by wind noise. It appears to be linked to road speed rather than engine speed as it continues if I dip the clutch. I can't make out any blowing from the exhaust when stationary and nothing is hanging loose below the car. Tyre pressures are set correctly.

 

I'm wondering whether it's wheel bearings. The car has covered just under 70,000 miles and is ten years old.

 

Any thoughts?

 

TIA.

[VRsdgm]

I might be way off the mark but when I bought mine last year the seller pointed out a noise from the front offside that he thought could be the wheel bearing despite it being recently replaced.  On inspection it turned out that the wheel arch liner had come loose from its flimsy fixings and was rubbing against the tyre.  It did sound fairly similar to a bearing issue.

[Ajscott598]

3 hours ago, StuartA said:

Over the last couple of days, I've noticed a subdued booming whilst traveling at 30-40mph. I can't hear it when I open a window as it is drowned out by wind noise. It appears to be linked to road speed rather than engine speed as it continues if I dip the clutch. I can't make out any blowing from the exhaust when stationary and nothing is hanging loose below the car. Tyre pressures are set correctly.

 

I'm wondering whether it's wheel bearings. The car has covered just under 70,000 miles and is ten years old.

 

Any thoughts?

 

TIA.

Thank u for posting this as I thought I was hearing the same. Only got the car on Friday. I'll need to have a look at the wheel arch liners. 

[StuartA]

41 minutes ago, VRsdgm said:

I might be way off the mark but when I bought mine last year the seller pointed out a noise from the front offside that he thought could be the wheel bearing despite it being recently replaced.  On inspection it turned out that the wheel arch liner had come loose from its flimsy fixings and was rubbing against the tyre.  It did sound fairly similar to a bearing issue.

Thanks. I'll certainly take a look at the liners in daylight tomorrow.

[Gissin]

get your tyres checked old, worn , uneven wear   saw toothed tyres can cause a increase in road noise which can sound similar to a bearing on the way out.

 

fortunately on these cars bearing changes (if that is the cause) are fairly straight forward.

[Ajscott598]

Just checked my wheel arches. Front passenger side has come loose. So that will be getting sorted tomorrow. Thank you VRsdgm. 

[VRsdgm]

Great, hope it works. 

[StuartA]

Update: Checked my arch liners yesterday but all are firmly attached.

[eccleshill]

Both my Octavias suffered from this .  It was the rear tyres wearing like saw teeth.  Run your hand around the tread in each direction, going one way will be smooth, going the other you will feel steps.

Changing the tyres cures it but it comes back after 8-10k miles or so.

[Gissin]

11 hours ago, eccleshill said:

Both my Octavias suffered from this .  It was the rear tyres wearing like saw teeth.  Run your hand around the tread in each direction, going one way will be smooth, going the other you will feel steps.

Changing the tyres cures it but it comes back after 8-10k miles or so.

that shouldn't happen,  you have an issue with alignment or a suspension problem

 

when was it last 4 wheel aligned ?

[StuartA]

16 hours ago, eccleshill said:

Both my Octavias suffered from this .  It was the rear tyres wearing like saw teeth.  Run your hand around the tread in each direction, going one way will be smooth, going the other you will feel steps.

Changing the tyres cures it but it comes back after 8-10k miles or so.

 

Thanks but it's not this, I've just checked all four tyres and they feel the same in both directions.

[stevenc]

I had this problem exactly as described.  I checked the tyres  - all were wearing evenly but I tried a front to back and diagonal wheel/tyre rotation - made no difference.  I carefully checked the wheel bearings and could find nothing wrong.  I checked suspension, engine mounts  - anything I could think of that could be loose.

 

In the end I thought I'll just put some more miles on it and see if it gets worse.  Several thousand miles later it was neither better nor worse.

 

As a side issue I had noticed that my brake discs were getting quite a build up of rust on their surfaces - probably due to my driving style  - I have always tried to anticipate the road ahead and lift off the accelerator in preference to heavy braking at the last minute like a lot of drivers seem to favour.

 

In order to try and counteract the rust build up I (reluctantly) have changed my driving stlye and try and do some heavier, more prolonged braking when I drive now to try and keep the disc surface clean.

 

What I am getting to is that after a while I started to notice that the noise that is the subject of this thread started to get less and eventually it has disappeared. I am not really sure why this could be a solution for the problem - given that disk pads are meant to 'float' above, or be in very light contact with the surface of the disk when they are not braking, but I have done nothing else to the car to sort the problem.

Edited 26 January, 2018 by stevenc

[Ajscott598]

I've secured the wheel arch liner so hopefully the noise I'm hearing will disappear. 

[StuartA]

4 hours ago, stevenc said:

As a side issue I had noticed that my brake discs were getting quite a build up of rust on their surfaces - probably due to my driving style  - I have always tried to anticipate the road ahead and lift off the accelerator in preference to heavy braking at the last minute like a lot of drivers seem to favour.

 

In order to try and counteract the rust build up I (reluctantly) have changed my driving stlye and try and do some heavier, more prolonged braking when I drive now to try and keep the disc surface clean.

 

What I am getting to is that after a while I started to notice that the noise that is the subject of this thread started to get less and eventually it has disappeared. I am not really sure why this could be a solution for the problem - given that disk pads are meant to 'float' above, or be in very light contact with the surface of the disk when they are not braking, but I have done nothing else to the car to sort the problem.

 

This is an interesting theory. The arrival of the noise on my car coincided with a reduction in usage (every other day rather than daily) and only shortish trips (less than 10 miles round trips generally) rarely exceeding 40mph. I have a similar driving style to yours having been trained to read the road ahead.

Before I left today, I noticed some surface rust on all four disks but this quickly disappeared. I tried some heavy braking from 40mph to 30mph on empty roads but felt nothing untoward through the brake pedal or steering wheel.

In addition to arch liners, I've also checked other under-vehicle panels and plastic trays and they all look to be secure.

[eccleshill]

On 26/01/2018 at 09:07, Gissin said:

that shouldn't happen,  you have an issue with alignment or a suspension problem

 

when was it last 4 wheel aligned ?

This is a common issue with Octavias, especially those with lower suspension and larger wheels.  Been 4 Octavias in the family and they have all done it to some degree.  I've had 2 of them.

On my 06 plate Octavia (standard Elegance with 16" (?) wheels) the problem wasn't so bad.  I had a full size alloy spare and rotated the tyres to even out the wear and it was OK.

2nd Octavia was a specced up 2010 Elegance with sports suspension and 17" wheels.  It was terrible - a droning booming sound at 30-40 after a few thousand miles.  Got 4 wheel alignment done and new tyres but after around 10k miles it was coming back.  Then it was time to change so it became someone else's problem!  

[Gissin]

On 1/27/2018 at 18:36, eccleshill said:

This is a common issue with Octavias, especially those with lower suspension and larger wheels.  Been 4 Octavias in the family and they have all done it to some degree.  I've had 2 of them.

On my 06 plate Octavia (standard Elegance with 16" (?) wheels) the problem wasn't so bad.  I had a full size alloy spare and rotated the tyres to even out the wear and it was OK.

2nd Octavia was a specced up 2010 Elegance with sports suspension and 17" wheels.  It was terrible - a droning booming sound at 30-40 after a few thousand miles.  Got 4 wheel alignment done and new tyres but after around 10k miles it was coming back.  Then it was time to change so it became someone else's problem!  

 

 

whatever the issue there is always a cause - and generally for this the cause is what I've stated.

[StuartA]

Update:

Been out on a slightly longer run. The noise starts around 20mph and up to 50mph doesn't get any worse (i.e. louder). By 60mph, it can't be heard any more (because of road roar). I don't think it's the tyres because of the sudden onset of the problem, I'd have expected it to have been getting worse over a long period if it were tyres.

[Gissin]

3 minutes ago, StuartA said:

Update:

Been out on a slightly longer run. The noise starts around 20mph and up to 50mph doesn't get any worse (i.e. louder). By 60mph, it can't be heard any more (because of road roar). I don't think it's the tyres because of the sudden onset of the problem, I'd have expected it to have been getting worse over a long period if it were tyres.

can you make a video ? might be useful to hear the sound

 

just a thought have you checked your exhaust system .. i've found before a bent clamp that allows it to touch the body just at certain revs due to vibration frequency

[StuartA]

33 minutes ago, Gissin said:

can you make a video ? might be useful to hear the sound

 

just a thought have you checked your exhaust system .. i've found before a bent clamp that allows it to touch the body just at certain revs due to vibration frequency

 

Thanks, I'll certainly give it a go and post the result if it's any good.

 

Don't think it'll be the exhaust as the sound is road speed dependent rather than engine speed.

[Buteo]

Hi,

Just read this thread and was about to enter my experience when Gissin beat me to it...

Just after I bought mine last year, I had similar symptoms - the dealer traced it to what they referred as a 'resonance box' needing tightening. Basically, it was a loose part of the exhaust system.

That cured it.

 

Good Luck!

[StuartA]

2 minutes ago, Buteo said:

Hi,

Just read this thread and was about to enter my experience when Gissin beat me to it...

Just after I bought mine last year, I had similar symptoms - the dealer traced it to what they referred as a 'resonance box' needing tightening. Basically, it was a loose part of the exhaust system.

That cured it.

 

Good Luck!

 

Thanks. Wouldn't a noise from the resonance box be linked to engine speed though?

[Buteo]

I didn't go into it that deeply to be honest;

I had the same noticeable booming first, at about 50mph, then over a couple of weeks it became progressively worse - so it went back to the dealer.

It didn't seem to make much difference if I drove it sedately or progressively, bl**dy irritating drone was always there!

[StuartA]

On 1/28/2018 at 20:18, Gissin said:

can you make a video ? might be useful to hear the sound

 

 

I've tried to make audio and video recordings without any success. I'm going to have to get the car up on ramps. Thanks for all your contributions.