My bus seems to have developed a bizarre sound. It sounds like something is rubbing on the wheel - a bit like when you used your shoe on your bike wheel to stop. There doesn't seem to be anything rubbing, it only happens when moving and isn't engine related as when i pop it out of gear the noise is still there. It's very strange.
Wrong noise. Not a metal type thing more like rubber on rubber A low whiring 'brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' as I said like when you were a kid on your bike and had cardboard taped to your frame rubbing on the tyre.
I had exactly the same noise a few years ago ,thats how I tried to explain it. But mine was engine related .
Recently this sound sort of crept up on us. We decided it was officially there after going over a New Forest cattle grid. Our whirring/rumble changed when you cornered reasonably hard. After a lot of driving around we decided it was a front wheel bearing. We were even specific about which it was. Took it to SGS Aircooled and we were told both sides were bad, and that this sort of thing doesnt usually happen at once.
I'm almost 100% sure its from the front but when I span the wheels today they ran free with no noise. I'll strip them down tomorrow and have a look see. Only a half hour job and can normally tell if they are on their way out.
The rears are one list of things to replace. They came with the bus and as such I have no idea how long or how much they have been used or abused. One does seem to have a vertical crack in though. I must say though, in 15 years of driving various vehicles I've never heard this noise before.
I had the tyres that come with the van, I got the van in 2006 and kept the tyres because they had plenty of tread and were Pirelli. The guy that does my MOT's said they were fubar and out of date. I didn't know until then that tyres had a use by date. The tyres made a lot of road noise as well as hitting the underside of my wheel tubs when I go over bumps. He showed me that they were split radially and had lost their shape, the top of the tyre had formed into a dome because of the splits. When we got new tyres on some spare rims we stood them side by side and the old ones were at least 15mm taller, due to the dome shape. My new tyres have only hit the wheel tubs once since being changed and the whirring/flappy noise stopped. All this said it is probably your wheel bearings.
Well I went out to have a look today and got side tracked and fitted all my heating pipes. Nice and toasty now though.
