'Whirring' noise coming from wheels?

[bennymc]

Ello you incredibly attractive bunch

So I've recently been covering quite a few miles and I seem to have developed a noise from what I THINK is the nearside front wheel - definitely from the front anyway. The noise introduces itself around 30-40mph and gets higher pitched the faster I go. It's hard to explain, but I'd liken the sound to a Monorail or if you ran over a coke can on your bicycle as a kid and pretend it was a motorbike... (What... Just me? :-D )

I've jacked it up and ruled out a wheel-bearing, there is no play in the front wheels at all. Also, the tyres are even, nothing stuck in them and both have good tread. Tracking seems ok and the wheels stay more or less straight under heavy acceleration and hard baking

It's worth mentioning at this point that the M3 has a few violent pot-holes that I learned about the hard way doing 80-odd mph last week.

Anyone else had this? Cheers.

 

[oilburner]

Have you ruled out a rear wheel bearing?

 

[bennymc]

Have you ruled out a rear wheel bearing?

No, but it's almost definitely coming from in front... I think . Sounds like front left but checked both anyways

 

[Zara]

wheel bearing

Jack the car up and give the wheel a shake, if it wobbles most likely the bearing needs replacing k:

 

[bennymc]

wheel bearing

Jack the car up and give the wheel a shake, if it wobbles most likely the bearing needs replacing k:

I've done that on the front two wheels today as that's where I'm convinced the problem is and the wheels are fine - no play in the wheels what so ever.

I could try the back to rule it out... Not sure it will help much though

 

[Zara]

sorry i misread that last bit lol been a long day

might be worth ruling the back out aswell, I have however had a bearing go and theres been no play in the wheel :/

 

[bennymc]

sorry i misread that last bit lol been a long day

might be worth ruling the back out aswell, I have however had a bearing go and theres been no play in the wheel :/

Ok thanks

Well done on 1000 posts by the way!

 

[Cibbie]

Does sound very much like wheel bearing if you are getting a whirring noise, especially if the pitch increases with speed. Because of the nature of the sound it can be quite difficult to locate where it is coming from. So I'd check the rear wheels if I was you. My Dad's Mazda 6 had a whirring noise which he thought was a wheel bearing turned out the hub nut was not as tight as it should of been! So maybe worth checking that.

If it is the wheel bearing there are guides on here if you want to do it yourself, you'll need to look at the hub nut if you are going to do this anyway, you'll also need a torque wrench that goes up to the correct level of Nm to tighten up the hub nut correctly (most standard torque wrenches don't go high enough). To be on the safe side I'd get it into a (trustworthy) garage to have a look at it if I was you as you don't want to be driving around on worn wheel bearings and it's a bit of a messy job to do yourself.

 

[Severio]

I had a bearing go last year, it to sounded like it was the passenger front, turned out the be the drivers rear!
Jack up the rear wheels an spin them, you should hear a rough whirring sound if its on its way out..

 

[Anonymous]

Is a bad wheel bearing (especially if it's noisy) easy to locate by steering/turning the car while driving?

If it is the drivers side, steering to the passenger side will put extra weight on it and make it noisier, but steering to the drivers side reduces the weight on it making it quieter/stop making a noise.... and visa versa..?

This 'method' has worked for me before.

 

[F2eeman]

Could be the tyres.... could have a flat spot or something, difficult to spot sometimes, I put some part worns on my old car few months back and it sounded like the bearing had shot, but it was just the tyre... try the spare on each corner and see if the noise goes away... worth a try.

 

[hotrodspike]

Just been into the garage cos both of mine are whining, being fixed Saturday, the noise was driving me even madder than normal!