Thread: Can anyone help to ID this noise? Grinding bumpy feeling and noise when rolling slow

Start with loose wheel nuts or wheel bearings... followed by tailshaft universals etc..

and very simple tests is to press clutch in and out(whilst still in neutral) and see what difference it makes to the noise/grindy feeling too ... maybe no so much the bumpiness.

I'd agree with JC .. most likely one of those, or a CV too.

on my old RRC, I got a set of Bridgestone Desert Duellers, recommended by my tyre guy at the time.
After a few tho klms, one of them started to delaminate. Couldn't feel nothing other than vibrations they could have been blamed on any number of other things ... such as normal old tech NVH inherent to the age of the car.
But as you said above, as I was coming to a very slow rolling stop to a set of lights, on a brand spanking new tar surface .. maybe 2km/h .. I could feel the twitch in the steering wheel cycle with the speed at which I was moving.

That is, the wheel would flinch on my hand(not hard tho, just something you don't expect to get) on a perfectly smooth road surface, at less that walking pace. Couldn't feel this same wheel twitch at normal road speeds due to all the other variables.
So I 'investigated' more. I found other brand new road surfaces to 'test on' that didn't have traffic on them.
The small twitching action that the steering made absolutely no sense to me .. it was the first time I'd come across a delaminating tyre. Basically one tyre developed air bubbles in the tread area.
I was checking everything but the tyres .. all the linkages, steering unis, shockers, steering damper.

Only reason I found out it was a delaminated tyre, was that after running out of other things to blame, I had the wheels balanced by my tyre guy .. even tho there were no issues at normal speeds. no vibes no nothing. Just what you'd call old tech NVH engineering.
(note NVH = noise/vibration/harshness of the design of the vehicle, which is something the car engineers work on to get to a minimum).

I'll have a look at that, would be good if it was something so simple but I think this thing might be something in the driveline mechanics, but it'd be nicer if it wasn't.

I'll hopefully get a chance to have a poke around underneath with a spanner on the weekend and make sure everything is nice and tight.

Originally Posted by AK83

and very simple tests is to press clutch in and out(whilst still in neutral) and see what difference it makes to the noise/grindy feeling too ... maybe no so much the bumpiness.

I'd agree with JC .. most likely one of those, or a CV too.

on my old RRC, I got a set of Bridgestone Desert Duellers, recommended by my tyre guy at the time.
After a few tho klms, one of them started to delaminate. Couldn't feel nothing other than vibrations they could have been blamed on any number of other things ... such as normal old tech NVH inherent to the age of the car.
But as you said above, as I was coming to a very slow rolling stop to a set of lights, on a brand spanking new tar surface .. maybe 2km/h .. I could feel the twitch in the steering wheel cycle with the speed at which I was moving.

That is, the wheel would flinch on my hand(not hard tho, just something you don't expect to get) on a perfectly smooth road surface, at less that walking pace. Couldn't feel this same wheel twitch at normal road speeds due to all the other variables.
So I 'investigated' more. I found other brand new road surfaces to 'test on' that didn't have traffic on them.
The small twitching action that the steering made absolutely no sense to me .. it was the first time I'd come across a delaminating tyre. Basically one tyre developed air bubbles in the tread area.
I was checking everything but the tyres .. all the linkages, steering unis, shockers, steering damper.

Only reason I found out it was a delaminated tyre, was that after running out of other things to blame, I had the wheels balanced by my tyre guy .. even tho there were no issues at normal speeds. no vibes no nothing. Just what you'd call old tech NVH engineering.
(note NVH = noise/vibration/harshness of the design of the vehicle, which is something the car engineers work on to get to a minimum).

Thinking about it, the first thing I would look at is wheel nuts!

Originally Posted by AK83

and very simple tests is to press clutch in and out(whilst still in neutral) and see what difference it makes to the noise/grindy feeling too ... maybe no so much the bumpiness.

I'd agree with JC .. most likely one of those, or a CV too.

So the clutch in and out makes no difference to this noise. (it might be getting a little bit worse too...don't really want to drive it too much at the moment in case I'm flogging something out)

Originally Posted by justinc

Start with loose wheel nuts or wheel bearings... followed by tailshaft universals etc..

Tailshaft unis and wheel nuts are all nice and tight, not sure how to check wheel bearings though...I should probably have a look at some youtube videos

Originally Posted by Young Angus

Tailshaft unis and wheel nuts are all nice and tight, not sure how to check wheel bearings though...I should probably have a look at some youtube videos

raise car/axle/wheel as your situation allows.
Once wheel is in the air, pull on wheel in an up and down/in and out motion with hands on top and bottom of the tyre. Basically you're trying to tilt the wheel in an in and out motion as you look at it when you're at the wheel. Top in, bottom out, and vice versa.

You could try it with the wheel removed, but it's a bit harder to exert the same amount of force on the axle from the smaller diameter brake disk, than it is with the wheel.

If you move the wheel and you get the feeling of a slight bit of slack, something is loose. You may be able to move the wheel on it's suspension tho, and the difference between suspension or bushes movement is different.

Also with each wheel in the air rotate them and listen for any noises .. grindy gritty noises. Could be bearings. But brakes could also make noises similar to a worn bearing as the pads can skim the discs even with the brakes off.

If you try all that and still get no luck, I'll be home next weekend if you want to pop around.. see if we can detect something.

Originally Posted by AK83

raise car/axle/wheel as your situation allows.
Once wheel is in the air, pull on wheel in an up and down/in and out motion with hands on top and bottom of the tyre. Basically you're trying to tilt the wheel in an in and out motion as you look at it when you're at the wheel. Top in, bottom out, and vice versa.

You could try it with the wheel removed, but it's a bit harder to exert the same amount of force on the axle from the smaller diameter brake disk, than it is with the wheel.

If you move the wheel and you get the feeling of a slight bit of slack, something is loose. You may be able to move the wheel on it's suspension tho, and the difference between suspension or bushes movement is different.

Also with each wheel in the air rotate them and listen for any noises .. grindy gritty noises. Could be bearings. But brakes could also make noises similar to a worn bearing as the pads can skim the discs even with the brakes off.

If you try all that and still get no luck, I'll be home next weekend if you want to pop around.. see if we can detect something.

Thanks heaps Arthur, might see if I can give that stuff a shot this morning but will definitely take you up on that offer if I can next weekend thank you very much (will be in touch...will see how I go first this morning)