Need help with noise diagnosis - maybe CV Joint? : (

[Crazy Cat Lady]

Problem seems to have developed over past few days, it's not very loud, have to turn the radio off to hear it.

Car passed the MOT a couple of weeks ago with very good health ...so problem maybe not an MOT issue (?)

 

A transmission type whining / humming that gets higher in pitch as car speed increases.

Gets more noticeable at higher speed, and unaffected by gear changes which work fine.

And rather like a washing machine pulsating sound when it spins a bit out of balance, and more intense at higher speed.

 

Brakes are fine.

Steering fine.

Suspension fine

No notable vibrations though steering wheel.

 

<>

 

Will have to wait until Monday when friends garage is open before we can get underneath for inspection

 

Whatever it is, i hope it's not going to be a big expense job 

 

[Dorris]

Drive shafts/CV joints tend to knock under load, wheel bearing tend to groan when you load them up. If the pitch of the whine doesn't change with gear changes and is definitely speed related then you are going to be looking at from the diff to the road.  Diffs can whine (what condition is the gear box/diff oil?) and some tyres will whine especially if they get old or incorrect pressures. Just something there to go on, the fact it passed an MOT its shouldn't be a concern, more annoyance! Dorris

[maizey]

are you able to tell whether it's from front or rear of car?

Tyre? but Dorris beat me to it

Any change  in noise if you knock it out of gear and free wheel?

Edited 24 November 2019 by maizey
correction

[Monkey Boy 1]

Had a similar issue with my daily commuter car. Noise got louder with road speed and not affected by engine revs

Turned out to be a very dry wheel bearing.

It could also be 'feathering' on tyre tread. Usually happens on cheap tyres.  Check the tyre tread pattern for different heights on tread block. Or if you have them, swap over to another set of wheels to eliminate the tyre issue.

 

Hope that helps  

[Crazy Cat Lady]

3 hours ago, Monkey Boy 1 said:

Turned out to be a very dry wheel bearing.

 

Thanks for replies, guys.

I'm wondering if one of the wheels bearings has some water ingress.

So much rain this year, and the roads around here get horrible puddled up in places.

 

The gearbox changes fine, the oil replaced with Redline MT-90 in 2015.

The tyres are Michelin Cross-climate and all in fabulous condition.

We will get it up on the garage ramp tomorrow for a proper inspection.

 

Debs

 

[_Chris_]

Sounds most likely wheel bearings. Usually - but not always - they get louder under increased load going round a corner. If you find it gets louder on right hand bends and goes quiet on left, then it's probably a left hand wheel bearing.

 

Wheel bearings are checked in MOT but only for play and for noise when spinning by hand with no load - so only a completely shot one will fail.

 

CV joint unlikely to be a whine, they usually click on full lock as the first symptom.

 

I have known tyres sound just like bad wheel bearings - I was using up an old set that came with a car, and while on a long run started getting wheel bearing noises from the back getting rapidly worse. I drove gently back home assuming it was a bearing, but when I took the wheel off to investigate the inner tyre sidewall was massively deformed. A spare set of wheels / tyres and the car was fine.

 

[Crazy Cat Lady]

Within 30 seconds of my car going up on the garage ramp, my mechanic diagnosed; front - left wheel bearing

 

I had a go myself, all wheels spin smoothy except the front-left which spins with rumbly feel 

 

He said there is no play in the wheel at present, and the problem isn't at a bad stage yet, but it needs doing.

A replacement [ Blueprint ] is ordered for replacement to go ahead on Thursday.

 

He also said he gets 'em in his garage a heck of a lot worse and without people even knowing something is wrong! 

Blimey, remarkable how some drivers can ignore a noise that like! 

 

In all my hundred and forty years of motoring i've never had a wheel bearing fail before, so this is a new experience for me. and i've stopped panicking now, not a serious problem, and nought wrong with the CV    Phew! 

 

Makes me wonder why it failed at 63k miles tho', i know tyres are usually the culprit for noisy noises and they say Celica wheel bearings are super-duper reliable.

It enforces my theory about the past years rainy weather, floods, surface water on roads, puddles...

added to the fact my Celica is parked up 5 days a week, and often goes a whole week between drives, maybe wheel bearings need to be used more frequently or they start to rust up if left stationary for too many days (?)

 

 

 

[99GT]

I've just got a mondeo for a daily driver. That's a 2005 but only got 65,000 miles on it. Rear passenger wheel bearing had gone on that. It's got steel wheels on at moment and when I took the wheel trim off that wheel it's got a really big dent in the rim. Part of me thinks that can't be a coincidence and probably didn't help! 

[commandosqueak]

Depends on the bearing but cheap ones tend to go every 60k or so in my experience. 

[Crazy Cat Lady]

1 hour ago, commandosqueak said:

Depends on the bearing but cheap ones tend to go every 60k or so in my experience. 

 

Blueprint (?) i've read both good and bad reports about Blueprint on this forum, but let's be hopeful.

 

And besides. going by my annual milage it will take me the next 24 years to clock up 60k 

[Dorris]

Glad you got to the bottom of it, as you say so much water and with that comes grit then add in they never put enough grease in them from fitting can cause premature wear in the bearing races and corrosion which is what you are hearing. Dorris 

[ams]

The original bearings very rarely fail on the celica - my car had the originals on all 4 wheels at 288,000 miles. 

 

Usual cause of a failed bearing is potholes - they are pretty well sealed once all fitted so driving through puddles shouldnt have caused it to fail. 

[Crazy Cat Lady]

7 hours ago, ams said:

 

Usual cause of a failed bearing is potholes

 

Plenty of potholes around here, and often can't be avoided due to on-coming traffic ( i suppose coilovers & lowering springs don't help matters too )

 

Meanwhile, job done this morning, took an hour and a half.

With the car up on the ramp at a convenient height we took the opportunity to replace a few popper-studs that hold the inner wheel arch trim, seems trivial but when they go missing the flimsy plastics flap with a loud BANG! every time the car bumps over a pothole... which is more often than i'd like 

 

Anyway, alls well that ends well, Celica purring along nice a quiet again now