Driveline hum

I had both front wheel bearings done on the 04 which quieted the roar that was coming from the front wheels.
However, now that the bearings are silent, I can hear a hum that becomes most noticeable at 30 mph and up.
It is fairly constant and makes it even when coasting in neutral.
There is no change in sound when turning left or right.
Does this sound like a CV axle issue or something else?

Axles would almost always click on turns or vibrate. We do have a noise our transmissions put out. Have you checked or changed your transmission fluid and made sure it's completely full?


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I changed out trans fluid when I bought the car and used Syncromesh fluid.
Did you figure out your trans noise?
Maybe the diff carrier bearings?

Tires?

My Beetle is doing it (tires). I replaced all four wheel bearings and then had tires balanced and front end alignment done. The tires are humming, and you'd swear to god it was the sound of early wheel bearing failure.

I have good tires, Michelin Defenders, which are relatively new and recently aligned.
But I have considered the tires as there is not much else.

fruitcakesa said:

I have good tires, Michelin Defenders, which are relatively new and recently aligned.
But I have considered the tires as there is not much else.

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I've learned to blame tires more often...lol. On my Beetle...the tires are a used set I purchased that were about 50% worn. There weren't worn 100% evenly, but they weren't bad by any means. I recently rotated them which has seemed to help a bit. All I'm saying is that in my case, I know they're the problem (but before I rotated them, it did almost sound like I had a bad wheel bearing).

I'm going to throw a new set of Michelins on when the time comes. Likely in the spring as this thing will be parked all winter.

My wife's is250 came with a new set of Michelin Premiers, and I find them to be quite loud. The car is like new, perfectly aligned, and the tires are worn perfectly even so far, but they still sound awful loud to me.

I dunno...maybe I'm just so used to driving old junk that I'm hyper-sensitive when I do drive her car.

In any case, good luck. Hope you figure it out.

Hey Rembrant, thanks for your tire insights.
I will try a tire rotation to see if anything changes

So I switched tires front to back and took a drive.
Still humming...hmmm

I have some very high end michelins on my Lincoln. My mom has michelins on her car too. Different sizes and all. Noisy as ****. My Lincoln has 2 nitto motivos on it now because I had some sidewall nails. Those are quiet and soft. The 2 remaining michelins are still noisy as **** for being a luxury touring tire that costs $350 each


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If it's tires there's a good chance that running over different road surfaces will cause a change in their noise. I'd look for a really smooth, freshly paved road and see if there's a difference: if no diff then it's not the tires (diff or transmission?).

Is the differential lubed by the same fluid as the trans?

fruitcakesa said:

Is the differential lubed by the same fluid as the trans?

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Yes.

Which brings up another thing to test... Not sure what you're running for fluid. Have you checked fluid levels?

UhOh said:

Yes.

Which brings up another thing to test... Not sure what you're running for fluid. Have you checked fluid levels?

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Pennzoil Synchromesh changed maybe 5k miles ago.

fruitcakesa said:

Pennzoil Synchromesh changed maybe 5k miles ago.

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But, are you certain that the level is OK?

The Defenders are a notoriously noisy tire, after the Hydroedge, easily the worst tire Michelin has made, and they don't make many bad ones. The Defender is the "high treadwear over all else" model, which means they wear like iron, and sound like it too. Also, in many cases, they do not even make the proper load range Defender in that size for your car anyways.

I am a Michelin guy, run them on most all my cars unless they are simply not available for that model, but I would not ever run nor recommend the Defender.

oilhammer said:

The Defenders are a notoriously noisy tire, after the Hydroedge, easily the worst tire Michelin has made, and they don't make many bad ones. The Defender is the "high treadwear over all else" model, which means they wear like iron, and sound like it too. Also, in many cases, they do not even make the proper load range Defender in that size for your car anyways.
I am a Michelin guy, run them on most all my cars unless they are simply not available for that model, but I would not ever run nor recommend the Defender.

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Now you tell me