Afternoon, My car is currently with Mick at Diamond Motors and has a confusing problem! I thought a wheel bearing had gone, however upon inspection and full strip down all the bearing, drive shafts and swivel joints appear to be in good condition. The one that is harder to check is the tyres, they are awful budget BCT's that are about £30 each, however it seems mad to change them to find out it doesn't cure the problem... Has anyone had any experience with road noise and cheap tyres? can it really be bad enough to make the same noise as a wheel bearing that's past its best? The noise happens in all gears and mainly above 30mph. Ideally I need to try a different set of wheels / tyres, so if anyone reads this in Leic's and has a spare set I could try as few bear tokens would definitely be supplied Other than that i will keep my eye out for a set of 8 spoke 18" 225 alloys. Regards Gareth
I'm not great with cars, however I think I had the same issue, where the rear brakes were sticking and used to squeak all the time when over 30mph!! Had the pads changed and this seem to cure it! Been a while since it happened so correct me if I am wrong!
I currently have the PS2 michelins on and there's a certain piece of tarmac on my way home that makes the tyres howl if you like. As soon as I'm off said piece of road it's fine so I'd say there is a fair chance it could be the tyres.
I spoke to Aaron about it to and even he said it sounds like road noise rather than bearing noise... We can either replace both bearings and see OR do tyres and see. The main problem is there is so much noise coming from the rear, it's truly difficult to diagnose noises from the front. I'm certain it's the Chinese BCT's that are the issue as every wheel with them on appears to be loud!
I had the rear bearings go on my old Trophy, so I can sympathise with the noise! I would say though, regardless if it is the bearings or not, I'd change the tyres ASAP, some of those budgets are absolutely hopeless, borderline dangerous on a performance car. When I got my Trophy it had budget tyres on it, when I changed to a set of 'proper' tyres the difference was night and day, made a huge difference!
