I have a 2005.5 audi a4 and over the winter its been making a low pitched rough noise , almost like rolling a dirty bearing. Its coming from what i believe is the right rear of the car. If i drive straight or make left turns, the sound is still there. But if i take a right turn , even a gentle sweeper where i have to turn the wheel maybe 15 degrees, the noise goes away.
I think i might have a bad wheel bearing but im not sure since the sound goes away on certain turns. could it also be an axle?
Sounds more like a bearing. If it's real bad, you should be able to lift the car and wiggle it a little. Who knows, I've been wrong.
Sounds like a bearing to me, too...
the thing is , I've jacked up the car and tried to wiggle the bearing and i dont feel anything that screams bad wheel bearing. ive also never felt a bad one and ive heard they can go bad and not wiggle.
That's my impression, too. Loose will certainly help hasten a bearing's demise, but I'm pretty sure you can get pitting and roughness without getting definitively loose.
If you want to disconnect the axle and give it a spin, I've certainly had a couple of VW Rabbit/Golf rear bearings that made enough audible noise to be pretty conclusive just spinning the wheel in the air...
To me, that low roar/rumble, accentuated when that side of the car is loaded in a turn, is pretty darn conclusive. I mean, I'm not there, so I don't actually know what you're hearing, but if I were going to bet on anything, it'd be wheel bearing.
Jack that wheel up, spin it by hand, and listen to the hub with a stethoscope screwdriver.
Jack the wheel up and grab the wheel at 3 and 9 oclock and rock it side to side, then do it from 12 and 6 oclock and see if you feel any play, it should be tight but if you can rock it and likely hear a thunk - then its bad.
And if its an audi you are probably going to do a few misc suspension pieces while youre in there.
revhard wrote: If i drive straight or make left turns, the sound is still there. But if i take a right turn , even a gentle sweeper where i have to turn the wheel maybe 15 degrees, the noise goes away.
Sounds like a wheel bearing.
Not rocking is possible. Very likely that if it rocks it might be very very slight. The whole wheel might only shift 1-2mm. That's still movement.
That probably has a hub/bearing assembly. From your description, my guess is that its bad. FWIW, I have come across more than one faulty hub/bearing assembly that didn't have any discernible movement when checked by hand. Also, check the brake rotor on that corner carefully. I would think that a warped or cracked rotor would be felt in the pedal too, but stranger things have happened.
Replaced one on the rear of the Integra a couple years ago that had no measurable movement, but howled like a motherberkeleyer at speed, and spinning it by hand, you could feel/hear it. New hub assembly was like $30-40 on rockauto.
this is a very plain case of bad wheel bearing, imo.
making a left or right sweep with the wheel is the equivalent to standing on one foot or the other to tell if you have a bad ankle.
it's typical for them to be tight and smooth while on the lift, but bad on the road. don't let that distract you.
Yes, wheel bearing. The left or right turn tone change is the give away. Had the same thing happen on my A4........
Like Jay_W said, it can be helpful to "listen" to the bearing with a stethoscope or screwdriver. Be sure to compare to the other bearing on the opposite side of the car. A bad bearing may also feel "notchy" compared to a good one. But you won't feel it with the wheel mounted, driveshaft hooked up, etc.
The noise changing under load sure sounds wheel bearing-ey. Very very seldom does a modern hub/bearing actually loosen up, unless somebody has forgotten to torque the axle nut. I think most noisy bearings come from road impacts, because I bet 75% of the bearings I change are right front, which happens to be the wheel close to curbs and broken ashpalt on the edge of the road. I have no scientific evidence of this, though.
Beware- noises transfer around cars. What sounds like right rear from the drivers seat may be different from the rear seat. Take a good ear for a ride in the back. He can roam around and isolate pretty quickly.
Sounds like a wheel bearing, but make sure it isn't a tire. Sometimes bad tires can mimic bad wheel bearing symptoms pretty closely.
Also check your brakes. Our Odyssey recently was making a similar sound from the driver's side front wheel. Jacked it up, no movement from the wheel. Put it on jack stands, pulled the wheel/tire, and the brake pads on that side were worn to almost nothing. I was happy it was not a wheel bearing!
A bad wheel bearing seldom has any play in it.
When you put a load on it as in a turn, it grumbles, take the load off and no noise..
This probably has already been said. Just tried to condense it a little.
Im certain its the wheel bearing now after comparing it to videos ive seen on you tube, other people listening, and riding in the back. Now is there anyway i can tackle this job without a press? It seems like something i can handle but its my only car and access to a press is tricky without driving to work or something.
http://www.harborfreight.com/fwd-front-wheel-bearing-adapters-66829.html
has anyone used this before?
I am personally in mancrush with the hub shark for changing wheel bearings. Harbor Freight sells a knockoff called a "front wheel drive adapter" or some such thing. It is basically a big bolt and nut with some sleeves and plates. You turn the bolt and it pulls the plate through and brings the bearing with it. Vastly easier and better than a press.
And it's been 3 weeks! Get after it man!
revhard wrote: http://www.harborfreight.com/fwd-front-wheel-bearing-adapters-66829.html has anyone used this before?
I used them to put a new wheel bearing in my mom's 1st gen Rav4. Worked great. Much better than the shop that I paid to do it the first time around. They had an actual press and still did it wrong.
Did the job this past weekend, and it was the wheel bearing. There was some nasty galling on the race. I used the harbor freight tool, and it worked a lot better then expected. If anyone has to do this, i used the -17 to press out the bearing and the -18 to press the new one in. I also learned the hard way that the bearing has 2 different id's so theres a right and a wrong way to install the bearing.
So much quieter now!
I have the hub tamer kit from OTC bought it on sale from napa worked great on my 88 90 quattro. Pulls and pushes on the car. I still prefer a US made tool than a Chinese in tension areas.
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