excessive road noise, and ideas?

[khilgers]

I just got my new tires put on and the car was just aligned. I noticed that I am hearing a lot of excessive noise coming from the front of the car. When I turn the wheel slightly to the left the noise stops, then when I straighten out it comes back. Any ideas what this could be? At first I thought it could have been 1 wheel was out of alignment, but like I said the car was just aligned. Could it be a wheel bearing?

[Nezahualcoyotl]

it could be the tires. Sometimes the design of the tread could make noise. My brother got some generals and said that he noticed the sound while on the freeway. What kind of tires did you get?

[S14DB]

Some tires have a anti dry rot coating on them now. Can be noisy. If it lasts more then 20miles I would take it back.

[khilgers]

It was doing the same thing on my way home from the last drift event, last year. At that time I was running falken RT615s up front. The car was fine on the way to the event, and noisy as hell on the way home. I ended up replacing the tie rods, and outer tie rods ends because I thought that I bent one, which in turn threw the alignment off.

I'm currently running Maxxis MA-Z1 drifts

[S14DB]

Oh, so it existed before the tire change?

T/C rods?

[khilgers]

Correct. If it was a tension rod wouldn't that be noticed when i did the alignment? If I did bend it my caster would have been way off, correct?

[S14DB]

Correct. If it was a tension rod wouldn't that be noticed when i did the alignment? If I did bend it my caster would have been way off, correct?

T/C Rod is not a factory adjustment. So if it is within the MLB ballpark factory spec they won't touch it.

Did they give you a printout? Mine was 7* one side and 6* the other side and I had to argue with them to pull the one up to 7*.

[khilgers]

the alignment was not done at a Tires plus type place. It was done by a local that setups most of the auto-x cars around here. He has been doing alignments for a long time. Any way the caster specs are:

Left: 6.8
Right: 6.9

[S14DB]

I would go back and talk it over with him if he is at that level. Tell him what happened and what you replaced and have him check the specs again.

How are the Caster/Camber? Tire distances?

[khilgers]

The tie rods, and outers were the only parts changed on the car prior to the alignment.

The noise is the same when i was running -2 camber, and with my new setup with -3 camber.

Tire distances, can you be a more specific? Not sure what that means exactly.

[S14DB]

Sorry I meant Toe.

Distances between the tires. May be listed as Front/Rear Track, Right/Left wheelbase.

[khilgers]

My first thought was that the toe was way off, but it's not.

Toe Left: .00
Toe Right: .01

[lflkajfj12123]

sounds like a wheel bearing

does the noise get louder on a dip sounds like your wheel is going to fall off?

maybe a bolt somewhere isn't torque'd enough

shitty situation guess it could be a lot of things

[khilgers]

if it was a wheel bearing wouldn't it start to make a little noise then progressively get louder?

[khilgers]

I just got taking it all apart and it looks like it is the wheel bearing. If you compare each side, the passenger side is all nice and clean, and the driver side has black grease all over the nut to the spindle. Shitty part is that is was brand new and was only on the car for the equivelant of 2 years. Man, drifting is hard on vehicles. Time to explain to the wife that I need to spend another $125 on the car.


Am I able to just replace the bearing and NOT the entire hub?

[devnull]

Yes, it is possible to replace the bearing only.

[khilgers]

can anyone else clarify that you indeed CAN replace just the bearing WITHOUT having to replace the entire hub?

[S14DB]

Yeah you will just need a press. Bearings usually come preinstalled cause it is easier.

Check your spindle for wear also.

[khilgers]

Sounds good, at least I narrowed down the problem.

[lflkajfj12123]

cool

glad you found the problem

you can buy new nissan bearings (best choice) and just press them into the hub

[98koukile]

or buy the hubs from nissanparts.cc for $125 and swap a brand new oem unit in. I've found that with -2* my front tires are much louder. This would change when turning because the geometry of the wheel shifts. Performance tires will cause more road noise anyways, I just replaced both front wheel bearings and they were clearly bad and it didn't make my car any quieter

[lazysk8er2]

yea my e30 does the same thing when i turn left the noise gets louder and when i turn right it goes away. it is indeed the wheel bearing because a heavier load is applied on the passenger side when turning left.