Whining Car edit (Winging Owner lol)

[pauldaf44]

Whilst sitting in the back of the Ibiza today I noticed a continues cyclic whining noise that increased and decreased with speed and was worse on rough road surfaces. The sound is not affected by engine speed or by dipping the clutch. This sounds to me like a wheel bearing that is on the way out.
At the moment this can only be heard when sitting in the back of the car and travelling above 40mph and is not particularily loud. However it does get louder when the car has been moving for a while.

This is annoying me greatly as I want to spend the money on welding up the wing and boot floor on the DAF. So I am going to ask a few questions.

From the symptoms described would you say my diagnosis is correct?

Is there anyway I could make it wait some time before repair?

Is it possible to fix without replacing the part?

Or should I just bite the bullet repair it now and make the DAF wait?

[dafdaffer]

if you can hear it more in the back then its a good chance its a rear wheel bearing, i changed the ones on the daf straight away as i always do, even gladys has had two fronts done, jack up the car and check for play in the wheels normaly a twenty minute job unless they are pressed in and normally around £15 a side.

the sound should increase by speed normally a wuw wuw wuw type noise.

anyway spend the money on gladys she deserves it more as she is older ;D

[dafdaffer]

LOL @ richard ;D

[dafdaffer]

Oh and i ment to say front wheel bearings back one's arnt such a problem as you can still steer with two front ones ;D

[spunkymonkey]

Diagnosis sounds likely, check them as said by jacking and checking for rock in the wheel. Also spin the wheel and feel for any roughness. If they're starting to make noise it's unlikely that adjusting will cure them. How hard they are to replace depends entirely on the car - Daf ones are a piece of cake, Triumph 1300 fronts are a nightmare. Most rears on a FWD car are easy.

For the bearings themselves, if you can get access to the ones fitted, look for a part number on the bearing itself and try to find them online from a bearing specialist - www.bearing-king.co.uk/ are pretty good. It will probably be about 1/4 of the price of going to an auto factors or dealer and buying a "wheel bearing kit". Car makers tend to use off-the-shelf bearings and a lot of the more popular ones are literally only £2 - £3 each outside the motor trade

[daf44]

hi.

another possible cause could be uneven tyre wear.
i had this on my galaxy and it can cause a really odd whine that changes with the road surface.
bearing noise would not normally change with different road surfaces.

try swapping the back wheels around. you can also check for bearing play while the car is jacked up.

hope this helps.

paul44

[pauldaf44]

Hi Jacked the car up and couldn't find any noticable play in the wheel but did notice that it doesn't spin smoothly it seems to be rubbing on about half of the wheels rotation and smooth on the other, the wheel feels almost as its full of sand on one side

I think it probably is the bearing but will have to wait a few days.

Paul

[spunkymonkey]

Rubbing every half turn like that is much more likely to be the brake drum out of round, Paul (assuming it's drum brakes at the rear). In fact, it's very common and doesn't usually give any problem at all.

A bearing that was rough would be rough all the time as there's always something in contact with the rough bit.

[pauldaf44]

good point it feels a bit sluggish as well come to think of it and binding brakes would cause

[pauldaf44]

A good clean was enough to stop this whining. Note to self wash Ibiza at least once a decade.

Have developed yet another fault though it has been doing it for a long time its just more noticeable now. I get a high pitched whistling noise when the engine is running slowly and the clutch is fully engaged. Any ammount of pressure on the clutch will stop it instantly. Now to start with I thought this was a loose fanbelt and it does hyave this just I think this particular noise is seperate. I get a much louder squelling when on full lock at working the engine. Definatly fanbelt. This noise does sound like a belt slipping but I cant think of any that would be affected by the clutch, it also doesn't affect the cars performance. Just annoying really.

At this rate if I have to keep pulling it off the road because of some new wierd noise I might have to stop abusing it, and before anyone says I should do that anyway I need to make one work hard and the only other option is poor Gladys who is currently hiding in the garage hoping I don't get so pissed of with the Ibiza that I start taking her up to farm. Which has a seriously dodgy track and normally going there for a car involves having a several hundred weight of feed in the back.

Maybe I should think about getting a 4x4 van. Oh yeah just sold that because I couldn't afford to keep fixing the million computers or to put diesel in it for that matter.

Enough winging for now I think.

Paul.

p.s. I WANT MY DAF BACK NNNNOOOOWWWWW!!!

[spunkymonkey]

Clutch release bearing.

Some cars have them set to just touch the clutch at all times so they're always spinning. As they get old they can whistle if you change the revs (speeding up) they stop and if you put any pressure on them they stop. Some cars are not meant to have them in contact all the time but have for some reason (check cable adjustment first if it's a cable clutch).

Without knowing the layout of the car it's a little hard to be more specific than that I'm afraid but if you've got a Haynes book o f guesses for it that's the area to be looking in

[pauldaf44]

It is a cable clutch and the car has only done 25000 miles from new its 8 years old now. Unfortunatly Haynes do not make a book of lies for my model they make them for the one before and for the one after but as my shape was only run for about 2 years they didn't bother. It would be okay if the changes were just a cosmetic facelift but unfortunatly they are not. There is a workshop manual issued for the car by Seat but they charge £2000 a quarter for it which I am not willing to spend I believe that is the one that they sell to the dealers. The Haynes manual for the previous model doesn't list the right engine and the next one is a completly different car, very annoying but true.

Symptoms you describe are exactly what is happening, in general would this be a big job or one I could do of an afternoon and is it anything to worry about.

Paul

[spunkymonkey]

If it's designed to be in permanent contact then it's getting close to needing a new release bearing. That's almost certainly not an afternoon job - especially if you haven't got a book to go by. If it's a cable adjustment fault then it may or may not be straightforward depending on the set-up.

Most cars for the past x years have auto adjusters for the cable. These should always give the correct adjustment but (like with auto brake adjusters) they don't always!

First check is to find the lever at the gearbox end of the cable and pull it in the direction the cable will to see if there's any free play. If there's no free play at all then it confirms that the bearing is in permanent contact with the clutch.

Find the adjuster (probably either at the pedal or where the cable goes through the bulkhead) and try to work out how to release is so the cable loosens a little. That's gonna be a case of looking and working out how it works I'm afraid - there aren't any "standard" designs that I'm aware of.

Once you've got a little slack in the cable, try the lever again. It should now have some free play and may be spring-loaded towards the "away from the clutch" position. If it is spring-loaded like that then it's almost certainly not supposed to contact the clutch all the time. It would be pointless design to have a spring pulling it away from something it's meant to be touching

Start the engine - without pressing the clutch - and see if the noise has gone away. With the engine still running, operate the clutch pedal a few times to readjust the cable and hopefully the noise won't return. If it does then give your local Seat service department a call, ask to speak to one of the techs, and see what they suggest - most service depts are surprisingly helpful like that!

[Patrick]

Jun 17, 2009 8:27:19 GMT pauldaf44 said:

Maybe I should think about getting a 4x4 van. Oh yeah just sold that because I couldn't afford to keep fixing the million computers or to put diesel in it for that matter.

How about a Renault 4 or 2cv - or the van versions of either! Cheap (ish when you can find them, R4's anyway) Cheerful and go anywhere load luggers! ;D