S40 (New) Brakes : My car sounds like a washing machine...

[mjcourtney]

I wonder if anyone can help shed some light on a strange noise coming from my S40 (2005 1.8 Petrol 53k)? In the past 2-300 miles I've started to get a faint whining / drone that sounds a bit like a washing machine on spin (bearings?) and is directly related to road speed (pitch remains constant even when dipping the clutch at speed and letting engine idle). It's more noticeable at around 60 - 70 and decreases in pitch as I decelerate.
At first thought I guessed it was just worn tyres, but having just replaced all 4 tyres the noise still remains. It's just had an MOT and the only thing that was flagged on the advisory sheet was a small perforation in the CV boot (didn't fail). Could this be related?
My only other thought could be wheel bearing(s), but is this likely on a car with only 53k?

Any thoughts appreciated

Many thanks

[Gapples]

I would say you have mentioned everything that it could be apart from final drive bearings.
Unlikely to be CV joint in a straight line ( normally knocking noise when turning streering to full lock or in tighter corners )
Yes you can have a wheel bearing failure in that sort of miles although not common...have you tried feeling to see if any of your wheel hubs are heating up alittle more than the rest ? be abit carefull in case 1 is very hot from either a bearing or brake sticking.
Good luck

[mjcourtney]

Thanks for the suggestion, it's got a service coming up and i've mentioned it to the garage, they will take a look. The gearbox suggestion concerns me as I had a laguna die in the same way and that ended up costing £2k to get fixed! (new box) It doesn't currently sound as bad as the laguna did though so hopefully it's fixable for less money. Another suggestion was that there may be stones trapped between the guard and the brakes, will check that out too.

[c2006799]

Don't discount wheel bearings. I have just had both rear hub assemblys replaced at 90,000kms.
Symptoms were loud whirring noise from the rear at about 70-100kmph kinda like an unacceptable level of tyre roar.
It's like a new car now!

[pdrvolvo]

thats nothing are washing machine sounds like a car.one thats about to blow up.

peter.

[mjcourtney]

Originally Posted by c2006799

Don't discount wheel bearings. I have just had both rear hub assemblys replaced at 90,000kms.
Symptoms were loud whirring noise from the rear at about 70-100kmph kinda like an unacceptable level of tyre roar.
It's like a new car now!

Thanks, matches the whirring description and at the right kind of speed. Haven't had a chance to check anything out yet, but will keep you all posted.

[thesloaneranger]

how did you get on mjcourtney?

ive started having this noise in my 2002 c70 (48k miles), which is really bad around 50mph. ive not even had the car 2 weeks, and it was mot'd last week with no advisories. however, unlike bearing probs ive had in the past, there are no vibrations in the steering wheel - it seems to be coming from the drivers side front area too.

ill get out and have a bit of a look tomorrow to see if theres any play in the wheels if it stops raining, but if all seems ok there, am i looking at a big bill for something more serious? i did buy the car from a main dealer, so if there is a bigger prob, ill be straight back to them!

[stevo48]

Just a word to the wise here, don't overlook the possibility that your tyres could be making the noise especially on the x40 cars, it is a well documented problem with certain brands of tyres the rear tyres "step in" which causes noises like you describe and in severe cases it can cause the rear end of the car to oscilate ( I discovered this symptom myself) and I had pirellis on at the time.

[mjcourtney]

Originally Posted by thesloaneranger

how did you get on mjcourtney?

ive started having this noise in my 2002 c70 (48k miles), which is really bad around 50mph. ive not even had the car 2 weeks, and it was mot'd last week with no advisories. however, unlike bearing probs ive had in the past, there are no vibrations in the steering wheel - it seems to be coming from the drivers side front area too.

ill get out and have a bit of a look tomorrow to see if theres any play in the wheels if it stops raining, but if all seems ok there, am i looking at a big bill for something more serious? i did buy the car from a main dealer, so if there is a bigger prob, ill be straight back to them!

Still haven't had it checked out yet but hopefully it's going in on Friday. The sound is getting worse unfortunately. It is particularly bad at 50mph, and I now have a regular 'whoom-whoom' noise (which does make me think bearings). Also, every now and again when I come to a stop there is a grinding noise just as the wheels stop rotating, which could also be stones trapped behind the disks.

Only one thing for it, up on the lift and all the wheels and disks off i think. It needs a service anyway! There doesn't seem to be any handling differences, or vibration through the steering wheel, just the noise that is driving me up the wall.

If it's the gearbox then i'm screwed, just bought a house so the amount of spare cash sitting around to fund a gearbox replacement is approximately £0 (give or take £5 ).

[mjcourtney]

Took the car down the garage yesterday. Unfortunately there were no stones stuck behind the disks (or anywhere else), which means the cheap option is out the window! There was no play in any of the bearings either. Picked up on the following things:

1: Front left CV boot needs replacing, also the boot on the other end of this (that comes out the g/box) needs replacing as both have small holes in.

2: Both disks had around 2mm of 'lip' around the outside, which was rubbing on one wheel. The lip has now been ground down.

3: When up on the ramp and in neutral, we held one wheel and span the other, there is a knocking sound coming from somewhere in the gearbox but we can't determine whether thats something to be concerned about or whether it's normal.


The washing-machine noise still remains, and above 50mph is noticably loud.

I fear this may be pointing towards something nasty in the gearbox / diff / final drive. So my next question is - is this likely on a 5 year old car that's done 57k miles, and is it possible to get these boxes repaired rather than replaced?!

So far all the inspections have been done by a friendly mechanic in his spare time, so i'm wondering whether it may be worth forking out and sending it to Volvo to check over.

Any thoughts appreciated as i'm rapidly running out of cheap options to get this fixed, lol!

Thanks