A3 drone at 48-50mph

[lethallizzy]

our A3 has developed a very annoying drone at around 50mph at the back. its flippin annoying and loud! any ideas what it might be? its fine doing 40 or 60 just not 50!

[hman]

mis shapen rear tyre i would suspect, failing that it could possibly be a wheel bearing but this should really happen all the time.

[fatboy b]

Or could be the tread has "feathered" at the edges of the rear tyres. My brother had this happen on his A3.

[lethallizzy]

hi guys. thanks for your help. it has started droning at pretty much all speeds now, so dont look rosey . altho have got to get new tyres this week so will see if that solves it. if not then its the bearingy-thingys! any ideas how much they should cost to replace? and can they cause damage if left?

[Dr G]

Just seen a TT do this, was a worn rear wheel bearing - under warranty so not sure of the costs unfortunately.

I'd imagine if left long enough it could cause damage to the hub but there would need to be a fair amount of play for that.

[lethallizzy]

so does worn bearings mean wheel-wobble? if not then its got that too! lol
it has done 73k so i guess we should expect things to start going belly-up

[nicktowe]

Had this on Seat Leon Cupra, similar chassis, engineer called it tread stepping. Cure was replace rear tyres and get geometry checked. Sounded just like a wheel bearing.

[cuprabob]

Also had this on a Seat Leon Cupra R. Replaced the back tyres and it went away