Hi,
I have a horrible droning noise coming from the front of my Austin Maxi auto. I suspect a wheel bearing from the following:
In a straight line it drones.
On a right-hand bend it drones.
On a left-hand bend it goes quiet(er).
Question is: Which side? Anything else to consider? (bar scrapping it!)
Cheers in advance,
Rich
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Firstly, congrats on keeping a maxi on the road at all!
Secondly, re your bearing, you cant tell from noise patterns which side is duff, as they vary. If it is a bearing (and it sounds like one) the bearing with the defective bearing will be warmer than the other. Also with the wheel jacked up you might be able to hear it or feel it as you rotate the wheel by hand.
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If on a LH bend it goes quieter, then that could be because you're lightening the load on the bearing, and subsequently noisier on a RH bend, you're increasing the load on the bearing, which *could* suggest it's the nearside wheel bearing. But as RF suggests, you should be able to hear/feel it by jacking the car up (supporting it!!) and then spinning the wheels.
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Precisely what I thought about the load/noise situation, but then wasted my time changing the n/s/f bearing. No difference in drone!
I will jack it up tonight, armed with a new bearing for the o/s. Will then listen carefully to spinning wheels. Seems that the loading of the o/s/f wheel on LH bends takes up all the slack and quietens the whole thing.
Will report back with my findings, hopefully it is not in the more expensive (and less accessible) gearbox department.
Thanks,
Rich
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To diagnose problems of this sort, I usually jack up the front end, get the wheels spinning, and then listen with a stethoscope.
I can't really recommend the procedure as one for you to try at home, because it is a bit dangerous with spinning wheels and shafts, etc. As you can imagine, I take great care!
But, you may be able to find a mechanic who will do this for you. It may help you pin point the problem.
I hope you do get it sorted - good luck in keeping an interesting older motor running!
number_cruncher
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Ah, I can remember having that problem
Difficult to find as the noise went away when the wheel had no load on. Very minor mark on the ballrace, but sounded like the front wheel was coming off.
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Thanks for the responses so far.
I have had the car up in the air and prodded in various places with a stethoscope. It is definitely coming from the offside driveshaft area.
Listening to it, the front wheel bearing didn't sound too bad, but considering it was rotating loadless I decide to tackle it as I got another wheel bearing today - 40 quid :-(
Now the seems to be a couple of issues. Had a lot of bother getting the CV joint to come out through the middle of the bearing. When I finally gave up and removed the CVJ from the end of the shaft and found a bigger hammer, I had to well and truly mushroom the end of the joint to get it to budge. The inner bearing race stayed with the CVJ and the rest of it looked a tad rusty. Clean up the track and it had one bit of pitting on one end, and 4 areas on the other.
Other thing that seemed to look a bit suspious was the inner pot joint. I'll get a CVJ tomorrow - another 25 quid, and put it all back together and try it out. If it's still rumbling I'm looking towards the pot join of diff bearing.
I suppose it was about time for it to sting my wallet - I bought it back in March for £100 with 12 months MoT and 6 months tax...
Ta Rich
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IIRc cvj`s were a problem on this car..Some didnt survive warranty period..Other probs include diff bearings. auto wasnt best of units to get.forget some probs it had. Think you have done well keeping an old car going.. nice to hear of one still going. Highly under estimated motor..
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Steve
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Thanks for all the suggestions. The car is now considerably quieter. It was the offside front wheel bearing. Changing it reduced the noise massively.
Half the battle with this car is it's my daily driver, and motor factors don't stock nowt (special orders for parts - surchase for express). I'm a club member, but that takes time too. Really need to keep a good stash of parts - but that ties up money and space.
Next job: - recharging the Hydragas® displacers with nitrogen...(Note: Buy a Hydrolastic® model next time only one thing to leak)
Rich
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IIRc cvj`s were a problem on this car..Some didnt survive warranty period..Other probs include diff bearings. auto wasnt best of units to get.forget some probs it had. Think you have done well keeping an old car going.. nice to hear of one still going. Highly under estimated motor.. -- Steve
I'll second that. Should have been a great box as it was very well made. I had endless problems with mine. Brake bands, valve box, kick down linkage even! Essentially no gearbox, but especially an auto one, likes sharing the oil with the engine. The same manufacturer made very reliable traditional auto gearboxes. The other bad thing was the five row chain which linked the engine to the gearbox. A shortage of supplies from renolds meant they used a french chain on some - the links used to break.
BTW I also always used to pick the wrong bearing to change first. Left hand bend quieter equals right hand bearing. Noisier with the load off. Got the identical trouble on my current Seat.
Try to keep the Maxi on the road - amazingly comfortable and practical car in its day. As with all BL products, the customer did the testing for the factory, and the last ones produced were the best. Ditto the Allegro, Mini, 1100/1300 etc. _ Charles
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Let's hope the car is still on the road. For that matter, let's hope the OP is still on the road too!
Think this gets the "oldest resurrected post of the weeeeeeeek" sung in a Harry Hill sort of way.
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