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  #1  
Old 12-19-2002, 12:59 AM
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Tire noise or Bearing?

If this is total stupid let me know, but when I first picked up my new (to me ) SVX a few weeks ago I was sure that the noise from the rear was my bearings going bad. After reading here for a while I'm wondering if it might the the Eagle II M&S's that are on it... Is there a way to tell bearing noise from tire slap? other that removing the tires or the bearing? There is no play in the rear wheel when off the ground. Thanks
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Old 12-19-2002, 02:24 AM
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Two pointers

Mitch

Not a silly question at all. Two indicators for you. Tyre noise tends to have the same pitch all the time. Bearing noise will get louder with speed, and worse.

A good indicator is a change of surface. If you can find a real smooth surface, steel plate, anything that smooth, the tyre noise goes away, but bearing noise must remain.

Last, [this is three, I know ] get your wife or someone to drive the car. You sit in the back with the seat-back released. As you get up to speed, put your head in the boot[trunk] and listen. If it is bearing noise, not only will you be able to hear it, you will be able to tell which one.

Last is probably best test to be sure to be sure as we say in Ireland.

Joe
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  #3  
Old 12-19-2002, 08:59 AM
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Mitch, I had the same question, since my '92 had Eagle IIs on it when I got it. I had some hopes that it was just tire noise because when I drove over a short patch of really smooth pavement the noise seemed to go away (but it was such a short patch I was never sure).

Got new tires and the noise vanished. I think the Eagles are most of the problem, though it's always possible they're just masking the bearing noise. Joe's suggestion should help you narrow it down.

Good luck with it.

BTW, it snowed TWICE here in Santa Fe yesterday.

< of course it's all melted now, but still . . . >
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Old 12-19-2002, 10:46 AM
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Yeah, the key is to find find a piece of road where there is a transition from new asphalt (not chipseal) to older asphalt or vise versa. If its the tires, noise will decrease substantially on the smooth asphalt.

Joe mentioned that tire noise is fairly constant irrespective of speed, but in my experience, this is not the case. My Dunlop SP5000's do make more noise as the car gets moving faster.

Lastly, the noise that my tires make is much different than the noise the wheel bearings made. The wheel bearings made a very distinctive droning sound that varied in pitch as a wheel went through a single revolution. It was also much much louder than my tires. I didn't even know I had loud tires until I replaced the wheel bearings. :-) And the wheel bearings made tons of noise even at low speeds. 10 mph was enough to get them droning.
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Old 12-19-2002, 04:30 PM
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Interestingly enough, I've had bearings go out on the Right and Left rear sides. They made different noises. When the RR went out, there was a distinctive "drone," while the LR made more of a "wah wah" sound (of course, it could've been my proximity to the bearing that caused the varied sound). I discounted the LR bearing as tire noise for as long as I could, but, as it became louder, it became apparant. The crazy thing is, it was making the noise all the way back from New York (when I drove the car home). I'm surprised at the resiliance of these bearings. I'd put almost 10K on the car before it was loud enough for me to take it seriously.
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Old 12-19-2002, 05:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by Aredubjay
Interestingly enough, I've had bearings go out on the Right and Left rear sides. They made different noises. When the RR went out, there was a distinctive "drone," while the LR made more of a "wah wah" sound (of course, it could've been my proximity to the bearing that caused the varied sound). I discounted the LR bearing as tire noise for as long as I could, but, as it became louder, it became apparant. The crazy thing is, it was making the noise all the way back from New York (when I drove the car home). I'm surprised at the resiliance of these bearings. I'd put almost 10K on the car before it was loud enough for me to take it seriously.
My RR bearing was noisy when I got the car, but not nearly as bad as the [bald] Japanese Dunlops the car came with. It quietened a lot with new tyres.

I did 17000 miles the first year, and after another 8 months the bearing got to be unbearable [Don, you out there??] I reckon that means I put 28-30 K miles on the bad bearing. It got to CanAm noisy as your Megan was over here. When I could no longer hear the radio, I fixed it.

So yeah, I reckon they are resilient.

They could collapse, of course, so not a good idea to ignore completely. However, racing off to the shop when you hear a noise is not necessary either.

Joe
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Old 12-19-2002, 11:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by Dick Young
Mitch, I had the same question, since my '92 had Eagle IIs on it when I got it. I had some hopes that it was just tire noise because when I drove over a short patch of really smooth pavement the noise seemed to go away (but it was such a short patch I was never sure).

Got new tires and the noise vanished. I think the Eagles are most of the problem, though it's always possible they're just masking the bearing noise. Joe's suggestion should help you narrow it down.

Good luck with it.

BTW, it snowed TWICE here in Santa Fe yesterday.

< of course it's all melted now, but still . . . >

We are still waiting for the scarcest snow on Earth... Thanks to every one... maybe when it does finally snow here I will have a surface that I can trust with the sound... it seems to stay constant on any surface and increases pitch with speed...(which it will do if it's the bearings or the tires I think) So... I'm still thinking bearings.... Couldn't hurt to have them replaced anyway could it?
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Old 12-20-2002, 10:45 AM
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If you're close to needing tires you might want to consider replacing them first. Bearings end up at about $250 per wheel installed, at least around here.

I think the Eagles get noisier as they wear.

I got it! Try taking the rear wheels off, then drive around and see if it makes the same noise!!
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Old 12-22-2002, 04:17 PM
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A friend of mine bought a SVX a couple of months ago. When he test drove it, I thought it has bad bearings!!! They moved the tires front to back and the noise changed. We made a second trip to the car with another set of wheels and tires that I had, and the noise went away. We knew that it was the tires then. Good luck.
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  #10  
Old 12-22-2002, 04:35 PM
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It could be both tires and bearings.
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  #11  
Old 12-22-2002, 05:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by ensteele93
A friend of mine bought a SVX a couple of months ago. When he test drove it, I thought it has bad bearings!!! They moved the tires front to back and the noise changed. We made a second trip to the car with another set of wheels and tires that I had, and the noise went away. We knew that it was the tires then. Good luck.
I just brought my SVX in for what I thought was bearing noise--a continual droning that didn't change with the road surface and was loud at any speed.

Turned out, my tires were just cupped since they were off balance. I had them rotated and balanced and they told me the tires would wear down evenly after a few thousand miles and the noise would go away (or at least lessen).

--Dan
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