right my poor lady felicia has been quite unwelll lately, largely electrical, but thats all sorted now.

however, i hit a pot hole on sat at speed, didnt seem to do too much trouble except what i thought was knock a wheel balancing lead off because the steerign at speed (70+) was noticeably juddery.

however, abotu 20 miles later, i was gettign hot rubber smells, i just assumed as it was a hot day it was rubber left on the tarmac. silly me i guess. ignored it as it passed after a few mins, anyway it came back again abotu 10 miles later. then about 15 miles further down the road i started to get squeaking when sterering right. few more miles later the squakign was gettign more noticeable (to the point people were looking), and then occasional left turn borught abotu a vvrrrrrrrrrbb sound that you coudl feel beign lightly transmitted through the steering wheel (not pas) so i pulled over and had a look, but there were nothing looking odd. however the whole car feels like its vibrating with the vrrrb sound, and it also seems to affect the actual pull of the car slightly.

would i be right in thinnking either a wheel bearing, or cv joint/boot has gone or is it more likely to be something more serious like the steering racks/driveshafts? im really worried - i could do without another big bill again!

if it also helps, theres a distinct smell of hot oil from under the wheel arches, but that coudl just be from the engine, and it seemed to be heat related because i left the car idle for 10 minutes and it didnt happen again for another 7 miles.

ARGH. bloody car! ps its a 95N felicia 1.3 spi GLXi

i would hazard a guess at a broken wheel bearing, but to be honest this is quite rare i'd say... you have to hit them pretty hard to break them!

im in surrey mate, our roads are shocking. i can count the number of potholes within 10 miles of my house on 2 hands and 2 feet. problem is a lot of them are on low quality lanes that are used as shortcuts, so u dont have muhc hope of avoiding hitting a pothole, as its either that or a car/van coming towards you. sucks :thumbdwn:

but i take it a wheel bearing would make that vrrrrb vibrating sound? pps car is 89K old,

Sounds to me like the usual Felicia problem of a broken strut rubbing on the tyre.

Sounds to me like the usual Felicia problem of a broken strut rubbing on the tyre.

ditto

I was thinking "broken strut" too. Do not drive the car again until you're ruled that out, since your description has something rubbing on the tyre, and you could be looking at a suspension collapse or tyre blow-out, either of which could well write off the car.

Sounds to me like the usual Felicia problem of a broken strut rubbing on the tyre.

have the wheel off, and see if the sus cup has broken its weld, and droped down on one side.

!!!!do not drive until you have checked this!!!!

shouldnt be, had the front shocks replaced 18 months/15K ago. and front is level too

updatE: 99.9% sure not suspension struts - mildly dirtier version of brnd new.

however, had the front end up on the jack, and theres an audiable "gluck" sound coming if you hold both sides of either wheel and wiggle. theres resistance, but it moves, with about 2mm of play. interestingly the sticky label on teh shocks also moves, but steering wheel doesnt. plus car will on straight roads with no hands on s/wheel, the car veers very slightly to the right. no sign of any tyres rubbing on anything though.

plus yes, both front wheels are still bolted tight on the hubs.

updatE: 99.9% sure not suspension struts - mildly dirtier version of brnd new.

however, had the front end up on the jack, and theres an audiable "gluck" sound coming if you hold both sides of either wheel and wiggle. theres resistance, but it moves, with about 2mm of play. interestingly the sticky label on teh shocks also moves, but steering wheel doesnt. plus car will on straight roads with no hands on s/wheel, the car veers very slightly to the right. no sign of any tyres rubbing on anything though.

plus yes, both front wheels are still bolted tight on the hubs.

i would check the ball joint and the track rod ends then

could that have been where the hot rubber smell came from then?

the tyres could be producing that smell! maybe because they are out of alignment it scubs one side of the tyre, so it gets hot...

you relly need to get your car looked at

car *had to* limp on for another 50 odd miles today, towards the 20 mile mark on each way kept getting the squeaks and bvvvvrrrub sound and had to stop for a few mins but no burning rubber smell at all. tracking is out only marginally - @50mph it moved 6 inches to the right after about 10-15 seconds, so as i said its only marginal.

Get your car checked out, if its not fit for use on the roads your breaking the law not to mention putting your life and everyone elses at risk.

its already been booked in ta.

UPDATE>>>

problem still unresolved, car was in the garage today but they couldnt find anythign wrong with the running gear (sus, steering, wheel bearings, cv, tracking etc) however it was suggested that maybe somehtings been shifting with my brakes because i had new pads put in about a week before the problems started.

so take car out for a night out tonight, drove 20 miles without much of a problem. thought ooh great.

anyway on awy home 4 hours later, about 2 miles into the journey the rubbing noise came back on virtually every left bend, taken at over 30mph, yet, interestingly a light dab of left foot braking stopped all noise until brake was released, so does this imply maybe something isnt set up properly in the brakes then?

Well, that definitely says that either it's the brakes or the wheel bearings, since I don't think anything could shift enough to rub at 30 plus mph (well unless the car's been well and truly slammed that is).

Which suggests to me checking for stones in the disc backplates, checking for rust flakes under the pads, and checking again for wheel bearings. It wouldn't be the first time a sensitive (to the car) driver was able to detect a bearing issue that a garage couldn't find short of dismantling the relevant hub/bearing assembly.