Wondering if anyone could offer advice or a history of?

 

I have a 2014 superb estate 2.0TD 140k

 

The problem is a whining/subtle vibration increase as the car goes faster.

 

at first i was sure it sounded like a rear wheel bearing and sure enough when checked i had a rumble and looseness in the drivers side rear.

 

This has now been changed and the noise has reduced, but unfortunately a 2nd noise (less aggressive) but still certainly there.

 

So to describe.

• Sometimes louder then others Days, trips, journey.
• Noise increases with speed. nothing at 40mph slight at 50mph noticeable/loud at 70mph+
• If going down hill knock out of gear, noise stays constant. Engine revs drop but noise stays the same.
• Cant tell if it rear or front?
• No change to noise when you change direction (Swerve)
• No temp increase on any wheel after long drive.

 

I have not checked the front wheel bearings as I'm advised they are not as simple as rear due to connection to drive system.

 

I have been advised that the rear disks and pads need changing and a build up of rust on the back disks requires action.

 

Any advice welcome? any checks i can do to pinpoint? likely causes given.

 

Thanks in Advance to any replies.

 

 

I'd do the rear brakes first and see if that cures it.  Had the same rear whining noise intermittently on my wife's 2013 1.6 TDi although not getting any vibration.  I checked and couldn't find any evidence of a wheel bearing either.

 

It went through the NCT (Irish version of the MOT) last week and they highlighted that the rear pads need doing shortly.  I'm wondering if there was a bit of binding going on causing the noise.  I'll do them and see if that solves it.

On 18/09/2024 at 15:49, jashjash said:

So to describe.

• Sometimes louder then others Days, trips, journey.
• Noise increases with speed. nothing at 40mph slight at 50mph noticeable/loud at 70mph+
• If going down hill knock out of gear, noise stays constant. Engine revs drop but noise stays the same.
• Cant tell if it rear or front?
• No change to noise when you change direction (Swerve)
• No temp increase on any wheel after long drive.

I also have a noise, at similar speeds, which matches pretty much all the symptoms you describe. In my case it’s a faint-ish “ringing” sound - sounds a bit like a sound-effect from a 1950s sci-fi movie. Sounds like it’s coming from in front of me, and isn’t affected by cornering, braking or accelerating. There’s no vibration, though.

 

I've only recently bought the car, and from MOT records it appears the car only covered a couple of hundred miles in the preceding year. I notice that there’s a pronounced “lip” of corrosion built up on the outer edges of the front discs, so I wonder if this is rubbing against the callipers or carriers.

 

The car has only covered about 75,000 miles so it seems highly unlikely to be a drive shaft bearing, and it doesn’t fit the symptoms for a wheel bearing.

 

I’ll be following this thread with interest.

Im just going to throw a curve ball in the mix here and say check your tyres - I say that for I had a Volvo V40 before and she was very particular about tyres. Certain patterns did not agree with her and she would have the same symptoms you describe above  - Did the noise appear all of a sudden or did it steadily get worse ? 

 

Start off and do a small change then test after - Go through it logically and you will get to the bottom of it !  Get as many suggestions as you can and rule nothing in or out until you can definitively say yes or no  

Got the car 2 months ago. Wheel bearing had gone but the other noise was being hidden by the louder bearing.

I do have winter tyres on the rear and all weather on the front... good tyres plenty of tread and not purchased by me

Interesting thought about tyres.

 

In my case, the car has just had a full set of Uniroyal Rainsport 5 fitted. The noise was there before, and still there… so I don’t think it’s tyre related.

Have replaced all wheel bearing on my 2011 superb 4x4. None of them showed any tear and wear except sound that gradually increased with speed and when turning. But in the end especially the right rear bearing made increasingly louder noises also when driving straight. You will likely hear difference between tires and worn wheel bearing. But it is not stupid to check your tires, just to exlude that from the quotation.

 

First bearing to be replaced was front right (driver side for UK drivers). That was done april 2023 at 187 000km. This year I did the last three. First the rear right side due to sound. No slack, no visual defaults, but it was bad. This was done i march this year.

So, during a trip in october i noticed a slight sound again, and now it was the rear left bearing. No visual og slack there as well, but when diassembled, it was bad yeah. And just to be done with it, I also did the last front left side bearing.

It is likely that when one starts to wear, well the others will follow. Could be in weeks or could be in years...but, since I am not very fond of have tese things happen during trips or vacation, well I do them as fast as I can or have time to do before vacation time. Have to say that during our vacations or trips, we travel maybe 1000-3000 miles (norway, sweden, finland) and I will not sit through 2000 miles listen to a bad wheel bearing if I can avoid it.

 

Since I have a 4x4, it is more time consuming doing rear than the front and some tools are neccessary ( Have my own garage with **** load of car tools and a lifter). I use maybe 1-1,5 hours to do one rear side since there is a lot of cleaning up inside the wheel hub (iron vs aluminium do corrode as ****) and sometimes I have to use a slide hammer to get the bearing separated from wheel hb.

Removal of front side wheel bearing

If left side, use a 10mm spanner to remove the light sensor height adjustment installation. It is 2 10mm bolts/screws. No such thing on the right front side.
Front bearing are very easy DIY. Remove the caliper with hex/allen pipe no 6 or 7 I think. Use 21mm pipe to take out the caliper hanger, use T30 and undo the screw on the brake disc and remove. (do not let the caliper hang by the brake pipe, use something to fasten it to the spring. Loosen 3 bolts on lower control arm 16mm nuts, loosen the axle bolt with a 32mm 12-point pipe, loosen the track rod 18mm nut (steering rod ball joint) and take out the outer drive shaft joint. No need to do anything with the inner 6 xzn bolts. Then you have access to the 4 xzn M12 bolts on the inside of the bearing. Take a hammer and give the bearing some knocks around to get it loose. Take out whole assembly.

Next, clean up the wheel hub with a flathead screwdriver and maybe a drill with steel brushes. Clean everything, but be careful against the ABS speed sensor inside the hub.

Well, install bearing and torque to specs.

 

4 xzn screws on bearing 70nm+90 degrees

1 18mm nut on track rod ball joint 20nm+90 degrees

3 16mm nuts on lower control arm ball joint/svivel joint 60nm (or 100nm if aluminium/steel sheet)

Axle nut 200nm+180 degrees

2 caliper hanger bolts 21mm (or was it 18mm?) 190nm. If you dont have a caliper hanger, then dont worry about this point.

2 slide bolts for caliper 30nm

 

Finished.

 

My ringing sound has been getting fainter and fainter over the last couple of thousand miles, to the extent that I didn’t even report it when it went in for a service a few weeks ago - there’s no way a garage mechanic would be able to identify the sound.

 

This possibly supports my suspicion about the brake disc corrosion, which is gradually wearing away.

HI @rbhelle - do you have teh proceedure for replacing the rear bearing?  i have a mk 3 scout - cant find instructions, but i think yours may be the same?  thanks

37 minutes ago, asylum said:

HI @rbhelle - do you have teh proceedure for replacing the rear bearing?  i have a mk 3 scout - cant find instructions, but i think yours may be the same?  thanks

Well, if you have 4x4 they will be pretty like. Is it a 4x4 you got?

Rear 4x4 is like this in general terms.

I presume most diy do not have a lpt of special tools, like spring compressors for in-situ use. I use in-situ spring compressors for McPherson, it saves some time, but are optional. Anyway I would attack it like this?

When car on ground, loosen the axle nut by 1/2 turn. Makes it easier to remove later.

Jack up car and remove tire.

If manual hand break, release cable from brake caliper assembly.

Stick a screwdriver into brake disc from outside caliper to lock it from moving and use a 24mm 12-point socket with a breaker bar to loosen the axle nut. Push axle nut towards rear diff in order to get the drive knuckle out a bit.

If it doesnt move at all, well, to tap with hammer on nut to loosen it.

Remove caliper with 13mm and 15mm wrench. Use as counterhold. Now, hang up calipers from chassis with some straps etc.

Remove Pads.

Now, next is to remove the spring. There is no way to move the axle without out from wheel bearing house without removal of spring. You need to loosen the lower controlarm bolt so the knuckle can be adjusted enough to get the drive axle out from wheel bearing.

Well, use a car jack to support the lower control arm and jack it up a bit to remove the bolt and nut on the knuckle. I think this is 18mm 6 point bolt and nut. If you have impact it will be easier.

When removed, slowly release car jack until spring tension is released and the whole spring can be removed. Now take out the drive axle from the wheel bearing.

The rest is more or less the same as front wheel bearing.

4x xzn 12 bolts from the inside of the knuckle. Use short xzn bits, especially the upper left one is tight, the rest habe good space.

Clean up and reinstall in reverse order.

 

This will be most likely Tyre Sawing, I’ve had it 

If you rub your hand over tyre in opposite direction to rotation you will feel it.

When I discovered what it was I put rear tyres on front thinking I’ll soon scrub that off 😆

The noise, vibration etc through steering was horrendous so had to change them.

Google tyre sawing, think continental tyres give a good explanation.

its how the tread leaves the road on rotation and flicks.

i now try to not buy tyres without block treads ( if that makes since) 

Edited 10 January, 20251 yr by Snapper1725