Loud noise from car please help diagnose (video)

#1

Hey guys,

Our lemons car is making a real racket. Do any of you have any idea what could be making the loud noise in the video? Our race is in 2 weeks, so if someone can pin it down with some confidence, that would be a big help.

http://vimeo.com/5916363

Thanks,
Rob

#2

A lot of noise going on there. I would check the drive shaft - guibo and center support bearing for sure.
Ed

#3

Sounds like a flat spotted tire to me. Any vibrations? under braking, mid corner, under throttle?

#4

No vibrations, tires were new, no spins and the car has ABS.

#5

I’d say wheel bearing(s).

#6

Mike brings up a good point. In my experience with front and rear wheel bearing failure, the noise was greater under lateral load - was that what you were hearing?
Ed

#7

I was in a SE30 that had a wheel bearing going bad and it made some noise going straight, real loud turning left and no noise going right. I cant remember what bearing went bad but it was a wheel bearing and I thought of that watching the video but there was so many other noises its hard to tell.

Easy to check if you jack the car up and try to wiggle the wheels in their vertical axis. Some play is not good and it will eventually fail all the way and that is worse.

#8

Thanks guys! I had the guy with the car wiggle it at 12 and 6 and there is play on the LF. Hopefully that takes care of the thrumming.

We also have a loud squealing noise that is most noticeable from the outside when the car is going slowly.

I don’t think they were able to pin it down to a single corner of the car, and taking the pads out makes some squealing go away when turning a rotor by hand.

One person wants to replace all the calipers, another person thinks its gotta be master cylinder since they can’t nail down a corner.

None of it makes any sense to me and I’d like to blame the wheelbearing or some piece of brake hardware rubbing the rotor hard. It’s pretty painful for me having the car 100 miles away and unable to personally investigate it.

Anyone have any ideas on that one? I’ll try to get a video up for that noise.

#9

I think Skeen is right. I had a rear wheel bearing fail on the road a few years ago and it sounded like that.

Per Mike D’s comment, wheel bearing failures do typically sound different under side loads (louder in certain corners). However, if one of the rears simply ran dry from sitting around, it could still be solid from a lateral load stand point and thus make the same noise regardless of lateral loads.

Do you recall any radial grease strips on any of the wheels. You know like a spin art painting. This indicates bearing grease being spit out under high heat.

If you are doing a Lemons, your gonna want fresh bearings at all for corners and the center drive shaft anyway. I’d start there.

Don

#10

http://www.vimeo.com/5980593

Here is a video of the 2nd sound from outside the car.

Thanks for the help guys, we appreciate it!

#11

2nd sound was a brake pad backing plate hitting the rotor. Still waiting to hear if the new wheel bearings fix the first sound.