Car started developing this wheel bearing noise while it's turning/under transition. Especially in mid-high speed corners. "Thud thud thud thud thud"

Checked all the wheel hubs and bearings they were all solid.
Brought to my mechanic and it was first diagnosed as a bad drive shaft, got a driveshaft from Mazmart when Paul said it might've been a misdiagnose, turns out he was right. It wasn't the drive shaft.

Now they drained the diff oil and there were metal flakes in it, but not significant enough as being a bad diff.

They are now removing the axle and disasemble it to see if there's uneven wear inside the cups.

The car sees a couple of track days a year, especially last year... (16 days of harsh Sebring concrete/asphalt)

Has anyone heard of anything like this? Thoughts?

Much appreciated.

 

There are a lot of things at play, it will just take a qualified individual to diagnose it properly. Are you aware if they are properly aligning the PPF or not? Most shops just slap it all together and eye ball it. I was having a similar issue after I installed the S2 trans and after following the procedure in the manual for aligning the PPF, my sound went away.

 

The shop owners are SCCA regional champs & nationals podium getters, and they build their own cars, so I have doubt in their qualification. The thing is the noise was there before the driveshaft swap, it just didn't fix anything. The U-Joints on the old one was bad or so I was told. Didn't really matter since the "new" one only cost $160 shipped.

The main issue now is that they can't replicate the noise on the lift, whilst on the road it's pretty easily replicated.

And 9k, I haven't seen your car for a while, new wheels looks sexy!

 

Thanks man but I have had them for a few years so it really has been a while,

Have they checked the bolts and such on the subframe? Gas tank moving around? Man it could be so many things. Setup some go pros.

 

I've been away for "a while" a while... lol

Hmmm. I didn't see any sidewall bulge. Come to think about it the noise does vary according to speed.

These are the new VR1 that I put on not too long ago. 2 track days. Daytona Road Course & PBIR. I'll have them inspect that tmr.

Loving the Ignition kit on track btw Charles.

 

That'd be so dumb if it ended up being that, having almost all the rear end out........ lol

 

Same problem, same symptoms. Violent vibration at-speed, couldn't feel it through the wheel, couldn't localize it. Chased my tail for months. Replaced a bunch of parts.

It was the left front hub bearing.

There was no play and no noise when on a lift and spinning/pushing/pulling the wheel by hand. I tried multiple times.

I finally figured it out by going for a drive to warm it up, then got the car off the ground and spun each wheel like a madman by hand. Finally felt/heard the left front rumbling. I mean you have to spin it fast. Still no play and no noise or rumbling turning it slowly by hand.

$150 for a new hub from MAZDASPEED Motorsports, problem is gone.

 

Have that issue with several other cars. Twice the bearing seized without much warning other than the occasional vibration you mentioned.

 

"That did come though our mind, it is coming from the rear for sure but i cant see any damage on the tires, we will try to rotate them to see, axle just got checked out was not pitted inside but the grease on both outter joint was dry and inner joint grease was as thin as oil so those are getting rebuild as we speak, the driver side wheel bearing and hub is bad needs to be replace but i dont think the wheel bearing was the cause of the problem because it was both side."

From a daily update...

 

So they changed the hubs... and it wasn't even that.... Geez.. What is it really....

 

Well whattayaknow... sensei is right. They tore almost everything apart and it ended up being one of the front hubs...

 

Sometimes - sometimes - I know what I'm talking about.


I don't think that's true. My RX-8 has thousands and thousands of track miles, some on Hoosiers, on top of 70k+ street miles. The hub failure is the first significant mechanical problem I've had.

 

They must've spent HOURSSSSS on it. Good thing I had my buddy's shop work on it, and he only charged me to rebuild the rear axle bearings, and the front hub. $120 labor.