I've got a drone!

 

I've had it before, it was a result of the rear tyres saw toothing. Not this time though, plenty of tread on the rears.

 

She's just hit 143,000 miles so I suspect a rogue wheel bearing.

 

Anyone replaced a wheel bearing. I can't tell which corner it's coming from.

Hi, had a N/S front go at 40K... Drone was there , annoying but not drastic. It was diagnosed by the garage, £175 for a new hub at an independent. 

Have you run your hand along the inside of the rear tyres? For instance, the rears on the Octavia have got 6mm left but have started to drone/sawtooth.

 

Just rotated front to rear so the drone has moved ends but hopefully it'll soon wear smooth again

I'll take a look.

 

The original tyres when I bought the car droned as they got close to the wear bars. There is 5-6mm on the current tyres so I ruled out saw-toothing.

 

You've got me thinking now. I'll swap front to back and see if the noise changes or disappears!

If you can't pinpoint it while driving you can feel each wheel for play while its off the ground and also spin them by hand and listen but often you still won't be able to tell unless its really bad.

 

Check the tyres and do another 10K until its gets bad enough to pinpoint 

Only a few hundred miles since first noticing the noise its got to the point I keep changing out of 6th, back into 6th. The drone is managing to replicate the engine over revving very effectively 

 

The England game and light coloured work trousers got in the way tonight but I'll run my hands around the inner edge of the rear tyres tomorrow night!

On 15/06/2018 at 20:49, silver1011 said:

I've got a drone!

 

I've had it before, it was a result of the rear tyres saw toothing. Not this time though, plenty of tread on the rears.

 

She's just hit 143,000 miles so I suspect a rogue wheel bearing.

 

Anyone replaced a wheel bearing. I can't tell which corner it's coming from.

It's not a hard job if you've got the right tools. A spline set, breaker bar, torque wrench and decent socket set. Its A very similar procedure on most vag cars. The hub and bearing are all in one and just bolt to the sus. There's only  about 3 or 4 bolts plus the driveshaft stretch bolt.

 

To diagnose a bearing, try jacking the car up, grab the coil spring and spin the wheel. If the bearing is good you shouldn't feel anything change whatsoever in the spring. If the bearing is bad, you will feel it resonate through the spring as a 'grinding or 'rumbling' sensation. 

12 hours ago, Shaunieboy said:

To diagnose a bearing, try jacking the car up, grab the coil spring and spin the wheel. If the bearing is good you shouldn't feel anything change whatsoever in the spring. If the bearing is bad, you will feel it resonate through the spring as a 'grinding or 'rumbling' sensation. 

 

Top advice, thanks @Shaunieboy. I'm going to get under the car and check out the rear tyres first, although when I did suffer saw-toothing last time the noise got worse at higher speeds. The current drone is more obvious at lower speeds where there isn't as much road noise (i.e. tyre roar) to hide it, leading me to suspect its more likely to be a wheel bearing.

 

I'd not considered a DIY on a bearing, I'd assumed it was a big job. I've changed front discs before, but got stuck on the rears as I couldn't get enough leverage with the car on a trolley jack to release the caliper carriers.

 

When I check / rotate the tyres and check for play I'll make sire I have a hand on the springs 

 

Watch this space.

Swapped the tyres, front to back tonight, no difference.

 

Al four inner edges are wearing heavily (I've rotated them previously), but no obvious sign of saw-toothing whilst running my hands over the tyre.

 

As I was only using a trolley jack and axle stands I had the car in gear with the handbrake on so wasn't able to spin the discs. I was however able to grab the discs / hub and give them a good wiggle, no obvious movement in any of them.

 

A few questions...

 

• Are the front wheel bearings most likely to be the issue?
• I'm assuming there are bearings on the back too!?
• Should they be replaced in pairs?
• Does the tracking need doing afterwards?

 

Hopefully once its booked in and the garage can get the car off the ground and all four wheels removed it'll be easier for them to diagnose.

 

A mate at work took his 2016 Audi A4 in for a drone, turned out to be a gearbox bearing and needed the box removed 

38 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

 

A few questions...

 

 

• Are the front wheel bearings most likely to be the issue?
• I'm assuming there are bearings on the back too!?
• Should they be replaced in pairs?
• Does the tracking need doing afterwards?

 

With that mileage on the car, it's very likely a bearing needs replacing.

Yes, there's a bearing for each rolling wheel.

If a bearing on one side is about to go, then the other side is very likely to go soon as well. Because the front and rear bearings are often different plus they experience different loads, doing all four is not a bad idea but not necessarily suggested either. If either one of the front or rear ones go bad, just do the other side. The other axle might last quite a while longer.

As a rule of thumb you don't need tracking done after bearing changes.

 

Edited 20 June, 20187 yr by TLV

Thanks @TLV, she's just clocked 145,000 miles so a failing wheel bearing is perfectly plausible.

 

Once diagnosed I'll change in pairs.

 

 

Edited 20 June, 20187 yr by silver1011

Booked in for Monday.

Garage rang, drivers side rear wheel bearing needed.

 

Plus a rear spring. These need to be replaced in pairs.

 

All four tyres heavily worn on inner edges too, but these will wait for another day.

 

Let's see how much the bill will be when I go pick the car up later 

£125 for each spring, plus £125 for the bearing. £375 plus VAT = £450.

 

Expensive but all done in a day, free courtesy car and now drone free 

I think someone mentioned that bearings also should be replaced in pairs ??

I asked the question to the garage prior to them starting, they assured me it wasn't necessary so I took them at their word.

 

Let's see how long the passenger side bearing lasts now, that'll be the test!

When I had a rear spring fail I was told I didn’t need to change the pair, dampers/shock absorbers are normally changed as a pair, suppose it depends on what caused the spring to break

On 25/06/2018 at 22:26, silver1011 said:

I asked the question to the garage prior to them starting, they assured me it wasn't necessary so I took them at their word.

 

Let's see how long the passenger side bearing lasts now, that'll be the test!

 

In case anyone is curious about replacing in pairs or not, had the driver side rear wheel bearing fail in Aug 2018 at c.65k miles; this was replaced on its own.

The passenger side rear wheel bearing has just failed and been replaced at 78k miles.

Expected the bearings to last longer, mechanic mentioned that the bearings are a common fault he sees with VAG cars.

Both front bearings changed on mine under warranty at 11k miles...yes thats only eleven.

One now droning again at 60k

 

Is there just one part number or is it like the discs and three variants?

17 minutes ago, superbdreams said:

Both front bearings changed on mine under warranty at 11k miles...yes thats only eleven.

One now droning again at 60k

 

Is there just one part number or is it like the discs and three variants?

there looks to be a few variants depending on number of fixing holes and brake set-up.  What year is the car, and do you know your front brake PR code?

2012 cr170 l&k

i think the brake pr code is missing as on most other boot stickers. will a vcds scan help me?

 

i have this for rear

1KJ = Disc brakes, rear 282mm (1KJ). 

 

Looks like the choice is easy based on how many mounting holes the bearings on the car have, see here (item 26, 1T0498621, or 8J0598625): https://skoda.7zap.com/en/cz/superb/sup/2012-632/4/407-407006/

Edited 8 June, 20205 yr by Wino