Guys, 

 

My 2007 (57 plate) Fabia has started to make a droning noise at speed. It's definitely road speed related and becomes audible at around 35mph or so, getting louder as faster as you go faster. It still makes the noise when coasting out of gear (and when coasting with the engine off.) It started earlier on this week and has become worse quite quickly in the last 50 miles or so. It's a (very) basic 1.2l model with a 5-speed gearbox. 

 

I've just serviced it and can't see anything wrong. There was a hole in a CV gaiter which was weeping grease so I took it apart, cleaned the CV out and re-packed it with grease and re-assembled with a new gaiter. All the wheel bearings seem fine; the rear wheels spin with no noise, the front ones spin as best they can given that they are attached to the gearbox and there is no apparent play in the bearings. The gearbox oil level was down quite a lot so I topped it up but that's made no difference. 

 

The car drives absolutely fine, apart from the noise. The noise doesn't seem to come from any corner in particular (it could be front but I'm not sure.) It doesn't get worse or better when going 'round a corner in either direction. It happens regardless of what the engine is doing, and regardless of whether you are on power (i.e driving the wheels 'round) or coasting. It's a drone, not a clicking such as I'd expect from a dying CV joint. 

 

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what else it could be apart from wheel bearings? I guess my next step is to replace them to see if that makes a difference, but I'd rather diagnose the problem properly and only replace the parts that are needed. 

 

Thanks. 

Before doing anything else check your tyres for damage, bulges or misaligned tread. I had something similar with my Volvo S40 and one rear tyre had a twist in the tread. Replacing the tyre cured the problem.

Modern Gen2 bearing packs, or hub assemblies tend to start making noises well before they can exhibit any clues like "roughness" or "slackness", though you need to find a way to dismiss the "is it just tyres" first obviously.

 

I needed to change the front bearings on my wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT, it started making the usual noises at maybe 36K miles back in November 2021 while it had its winter wheels/tyres on, I played the old "its just uneven wear on the directional winter tyres" and that lasted until I found that a (front) subframe bolt head on the garage floor, so I changed my "logic" to "its just due to uneven tyre wear caused by the wheel alignment possibly being wrong due to that fixing having failed".  So, in mid April 2022 I got the subframe bolts all replaced and a 4 wheel alignment check-correct carried out and then changed over to summer wheels and tyres - no change in the noise!  So I bought a cheap Gen2 front wheel bearing removal and fit kit and ordered in a couple of new F A G front hub/bearings assemblies from autodoc, the factory fit ones were SNR - France, changing both of them sorted out that noise issue, it looked like moisture/water had managed to find its way across the seals and into the offside bearing, though even off the car, both bearings did not feel rough etc.

Edited 7 July, 20232 yr by rum4mo
changed mileage

Jocko, rum4mo, 

 

Thanks for your answers. They are appreciated. 

 

Tyres are something that occurred to me, and that has been suggested elsewhere. The tyres are 18 month old Yokohamas, with about 12,000 miles on them - so not old or very worn. And I rotated them around the car when I serviced it while looking for the noise, but it didn't make any difference. However I'm not dismissing this as a possible cause. 

 

rum4mo, thanks. I think that wheel bearings are probably my best guess at the mo, but it's a guess. Interesting you say that modern bearing packs can be noisy well before showing any other symptoms. Another complicating factor is that there is no clue from cornering; a long sweeping left-hander or a long weeping right-hander both make no difference to the noise. Perhaps I just need to sit on it for a while to see if there is an obvious corner culprit when the wear gets worse. 

 

Thanks for your help chaps. I'll keep this thread updated. 

I never ever managed to get any clues as to which side it was, that was after 6 months so probably around 4K miles. Trying the weaving side to side did nothing at all.

If it is the tyre(s) causing the noise, you should be able to tell by running your hand along the inner edge of the rear tyres. The tread blocks will be worn down at the front edges, often called sawtoothing, and you'll feel that with your hand.

 

If it's a different kind of deformation as suggested by @Jocko, you could still feel it with your hand but you'd be better to jack the car up with the handbrake off (chocked front wheels and in gear for all those H&S enthusiasts) and spin the wheel while watching the tyre. You'll see if it's out of shape. If it has that kind of deformation, you should get the tyre(s) changed as soon as you can. If you just find the "sawtoothing" there's no need to change the tyres if you can put up with the noise.

Edited 10 July, 20232 yr by HeavyMetalRich
Mention didn't work.

Guys, 

 

Bit of an update: the noise has become more and more loud but the way that the car behaves remains as before; the only symptom of this problem is the drone at speed. 

 

I checked it over again a couple of days ago and discovered that the near side front hub nut was loose, and wouldn't tighten. All the symptoms of a stripped thread on the nut (which is a bit weird as I've not touched the nut on that side; I've done the outer CV on the other side but nothing on the passenger side.) So I bought a new nut, pulled the old one off, verified that the threads were very mangled (why?), put the new one on and torqued it up. And the noise has changed but not gone away. 

 

A further test which was suggested was to chock the rear wheels of the car, jack up the front corner in question, remove the wheel, start the engine and run it in gear with the clutch up to a couple of thousand RPM, then hold the road spring to see if it vibrates; apparently bearing problems often cause the road spring to vibrate noticeably. So I did this and the road spring does indeed vibrate! So I strongly suspect it's new wheel bearing time, having ruined the old one with the loose hub nut. 

 

There are some very good threads on this forum about changing the bearing (which comes with a new hub), but it seems that a puller kit is needed to do the job. I don't suppose that there is anyone local to Cheltenham who happens to have a puller kit which they'd be happy to lend me for some beer tokens? I'd collect and return it, and leave a deposit (of course.) If you can help then please let me know, or if anyone can recommend a kit then I'd be grateful; it seems that cheaper kits kick around the £35 mark but I'm not sure whether they have all the bits necessary. More expensive ones are nearer the £80 mark, which is getting on a bit. 

 

I'll keep this thread updated, thanks very much for the suggestions thus far. 

Sounds classically like failing wheel bearing.

 

For each wheel in turn, jack up clear of the ground. Grip the spring half way down with one hand, while spinning the wheel with another. You should feel a failing wheel bearing via the hand on the spring which amplifies the vibrations. Compare for all 4 corners. Its usually one of the front wheel bearings that fail.

 

Obviously take appropriate precautions when jacking the car up.

 

If you can't find any fault then try swapping tyres with spare or front to back and see if it make any difference.

 

Lastly check for oil leaks from where the gearbox output shafts are. The diff output seals/ bearings might be shot and gearbox/diff running dry.

xman, 

 

Thanks. I'm thinking that it is worth changing a wheel bearing on that corner to be sure. It's not gearbox - I checked and topped up the oil but there are no leaks. 

 

 

Wheel bearing probably damaged while running with the stripped and slack nut.

That's very much what I am thinking. Thanks Jocko. 

I just gambled on buying a cheap "made in China" GEN2 for 72mm bearings via ebay, a year ago it cost £65.50 - and it worked okay for the 2 bearings I replaced. The kit that I bought has no extra bits.

20 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

I just gambled on buying a cheap "made in China" GEN2 for 72mm bearings via ebay, a year ago it cost £65.50 - and it worked okay for the 2 bearings I replaced. The kit that I bought has no extra bits.

Was that for 2 bearings?

 

Top quality genuine FAG bearing kits can be had for about £45 delivered.

 

For the fitting kit, I think.

Ok, that makes sense now.

5 hours ago, Jocko said:

Wheel bearing probably damaged while running with the stripped and slack nut.

 

Agreed.

Word of caution if the engine has a belt driven water pump , the bearing failing inside the water pump can cause this , and the worse the sound the closer it’s getting to failure which can in turn take the timing belt out so do be cautious 

In this case it's road speed related and not engine speed related. Its also a 1.2 HTP engine so theres no timing belt. The same even if was a 1.2Tsi, both are camchain engines

14 hours ago, xman said:

Was that for 2 bearings?

 

Top quality genuine FAG bearing kits can be had for about £45 delivered.

 

No that was just for the Gen2 bearing tool, I bought F-A-G kits from Autodoc, £104.61 for 2 kits including delivery - that was a year ago.

Guys, 

 

Thanks for the answers. Problem now solved. 

 

New bearings procured from Parts in Motion (who are excellent), fitting tool bought from Amazon. This one, should anyone be interested: 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07QPYYS9W/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Old bearing came out very easily with the tool but putting the new one in was a pain in the neck; it wouldn't go straight with the puller and needed to be tapped straight with a hammer and small drift several times in the process of pulling it in. Other than that the job was easy enough (even the ABS sensor came out very easily!) and having driven the car the noise has gone. There are several other speed-related noises which I heard but that's with a very critical listen and I suspect they are quite normal (it's my wife's car and I don't drive it regularly.) 

 

Thanks very much for your help chaps. Should anyone in the Cheltenham/Gloucester area want to borrow the tool they'd be welcome to ; it's clearly something that only does one job so it will now sit on my self gathering dust for the next 40 years!