Morning all,
My 1998 phase 2 clio has 'developed' a noise on what appears to be the driver side front wheel. It is intermittent and usually occurs only after about half an hour of A/B road style journeys or an hour or so of dual carraigeway/motorway type journeys. And, bizarrely, it just dissapears after a random period of time.
The 'pitch' of the noise changes with the speed, getting more high pitched as speed increases.
After reading a few posts I've noticed noise can be 'stopped' whilst steering to the left, I think, which echos the symptoms of a worn wheel bearing?
I only posted (for the first time) to double check that this could be a wheel bearing and not simply a case of getting the WD40 out after work, before I surrender my hard earned to the garage.
Any help is much appreciated...
|
|
Clios and front wheel bearings are almost synonymous, aren't they? Tho I thought bearings started with a quiet rumble rather than a whine? Certainly fits with being affected by steering.
|
Sounds like when I had a 97 Clio. Front wheel bearing went on that after 70k miles.
It seems to be a bit of a fiddly job, so on that one, I left to the pros (cost £90 per wheel)
It's not an essential job though - I don't think it will just fail. I left mine for about 4months before getting round to getting it fixed. (I may be wrong on this - so if any BRs advise to get it done asap I'd listen to them more than me!)
|
At the moment the noise is just annoying. The real pain though is that intermittent nature of it. Guaranteed, I check it in somewhere and they find nothing.
This weekend I did two stints of 180 miles on motorway, it whined for about 1/2 an hour on each journey. In between, I did 40miles on A/B roads with not a sound! This morning (20 miles) gave me about 5 minutes of noise.
Is that familiar kennyb?
|
|
If you think it is a O/S bearing I would expect it get worse turning left not better. I also would not expect the noise to be so intermitant unless the bearing is heating up. After a length of motorway pull off and bring the car to a halt on the handbrake. Remember no brake lights when you use the handbrake so take care. Then feel the temps of the two front hubs and discs, If you have a seized front brake caliper then you are going to burn you fingers fo be careful A seixed capiler may be getting knocked off on A/B roads but not on a motorway. The other noise on Clios that is a whine is much more expensive so lets not go there just yet. You do not mention whether it is throttle/load dependant and how many miles the car has done. Regards Peter
|
Peter,
The car has 55000 on the clock, and I did notice that the whilst the noise was present, it would increase under acceleration, sometimes almost vanishing when off the throttle.
Won't be driving it again until later to check it as you described, though I did pull over a couple of days ago in the middle of a 'noisy' period on the motorway. There seemed to be an unusual amount of heat coming from the wheel. I didn't think it wise to touch the caliper/hub at the time and just assumed this was a result of the journey length.
Regards, Dan
|
|
Either the brakes are binding but that would not be the throttle on/throttle off effect of you have a bone dry outer CV job. Stil pos to be a dry bearing. Regards Peter
|
|
|
Wheel bearings dont moan all the time.when they start to play up which seems to be your prob.they can go on for a long time.
depending on mileage you do.but it will get worse.It could also be diff whine but that usually is persistant.if the whine is coming from one side only intermitant would think w/bearing.would suggest both replaced if you do it.not recommended to have one only done.?
|
|
|
|
|
My wife's Clio ate both front wheel bearings at about 60,000 miles - aparently this is quite "normal" for Renaults ! On examining the grease which was left in the worn out bearing I found it to be very stiff and almost dry. A friend in the trade suggested that I throw away the Renault grease and use another good brand meeting the same spec. - he always does. The job is not too bad as a DIY proposition but the nuts are very tight and need to be torqued up correctly - I had to borrow a suitable torque wrench as mine did not go high enough.
|
|
|
