Diagnosing a wheel issue
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revilo87

Original Poster:

62 posts

53 months

Morning, apologies if this is the wrong board to post on

Earlier this year I skidded on some ice around a roundabout, not at a fast speed but the weight of the car hit a kerb flat on the passenger side front - it was a pretty hard hit. (Fiesta ST Edition)

It went for an MOT and Service the next day which it passed, I asked them to look at the front left and see if anything was untoward, but all they recommended was a wheel alignment

Anyway, the car pulled very heavily to the left, and above 40mph could hear loudening noise from the front left as speed went up, no vibrations or anything, but I had to have the wheel almost at 1 O Clock to go straight, so obviously something wasn't right

Took it to ATS to have a look at it and for an alignment, they refused because the two front wheels were pointing in different directions - which was fair enough, I took it to a garage who took the wheel off, saw something to fix - something to do with the knuckle, basically took the bolts off and re seated them and then the car drove perfectly straight, but the noise remains

There isn't anything loose in the wheel well, it sounds louder as the RPM on the wheel goes up

The problem is, and I imagine you'll all say the same - nobody can say what to do or replace next as it could be one of a few things, and could get expensive - I just want some best guesses on what would cause the noise at higher speeds, my assumption is the wheel bearing, but normally I'd associate that with vibrations, can't imagine it being alignment if all the tires were fine at the MOT and Service

Such a frustrating mistake to have made, just want to try and get it sorted

NDA

24,426 posts

246 months

Bent disc? Knackered wheel bearing? Neither is particularly expensive to fix....

Can you jack it up and spin the wheel to locate the noise?

Callerton

119 posts

69 months

I'd guess wheel bearing also - I had a SAAB 9-3 that for years had a front left wheel grumble that passed MOT's, no excessive tyre wear. Eventually it needed replacing.

BunkMoreland

3,246 posts

28 months

Find a straight road with zero traffic. And good sight lines so you can see if anyone is coming the other way

Drive along so you can get the noise then SENSIBLY swing left and right like if you were doing a slalom where the cones are quite far apart. Not urgent left right left right. But sweeping arcs.

Noise will get louder and quieter as you load and unload the left front wheel.

Assuming it does.

Wheel bearing first. Then retest.

E-bmw

11,996 posts

173 months

Yesterday (08:02)
quotequote all
revilo87 said:
Morning, apologies if this is the wrong board to post on

Earlier this year I skidded on some ice around a roundabout, not at a fast speed but the weight of the car hit a kerb flat on the passenger side front - it was a pretty hard hit. (Fiesta ST Edition)

Anyway, the car pulled very heavily to the left, and above 40mph could hear loudening noise from the front left as speed went up, no vibrations or anything,

but the noise remains

There isn't anything loose in the wheel well, it sounds louder as the RPM on the wheel goes up
Describe the noise?

Does it get worse going round a right hander & better going round a left hander?