Low speed front end noise.

WaveyDavey said:

When puttering along at speeds 35mph and lower there is a low tone...wah wah wah noise coming from what sounds like the front end of the car. Tires are relatively new and shouldn't be causing the noise. Could it possibly be worn suspension piece..struts, control arms, ect.

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I would start by checking out your tires for drastic uneven wear, then move on to rotors for warping. From there I would move on to wheel bearing which is the probably cause. You can check this by either jacking the car up and spinning a wheel to listen for a grind noise in a regular interval. You can also check by when driving and the sound happens take a wide turn at speed and if the noise gets worse on the opposite side of the turn then that would confirm it.

You don't say if it's an AWD 'xi car, or rwd.

How many miles? How many miles on the brakes? etc.

floydarogers said:

You don't say if it's an AWD 'xi car, or rwd.

How many miles? How many miles on the brakes? etc.

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My bad, RWD, 159,000 miles and brakes are relatively new. However this low tone noise I'm hearing is not when braking, It's when coasting at Low speeds. Transmission was recently serviced as well as a full tune.

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Art Teach 325Ci said:

I would start by checking out your tires for drastic uneven wear, then move on to rotors for warping. From there I would move on to wheel bearing which is the probably cause. You can check this by either jacking the car up and spinning a wheel to listen for a grind noise in a regular interval. You can also check by when driving and the sound happens take a wide turn at speed and if the noise gets worse on the opposite side of the turn then that would confirm it.

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Awesome, will try this out and get back to this thread. Appreciate the help

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Art Teach 325Ci said:

I would start by checking out your tires for drastic uneven wear, then move on to rotors for warping. From there I would move on to wheel bearing which is the probably cause. You can check this by either jacking the car up and spinning a wheel to listen for a grind noise in a regular interval. You can also check by when driving and the sound happens take a wide turn at speed and if the noise gets worse on the opposite side of the turn then that would confirm it.

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Rotors don`t warp from normal street driving....lots of track time, maybe. More often than not, any noise or vibration from the brakes is usually from pad deposits on the rotors.
If you clean the rotors first, and then put a dial indicator on them to check for excessive runout, you will know the real story.
See Dave Zeckhausen`s white paper on Brake Bedding, it will describe how to get rid of this.

Fast Bob said:

Rotors don`t warp from normal street driving....lots of track time, maybe. More often than not, any noise or vibration from the brakes is usually from pad deposits on the rotors.

If you clean the rotors first, and then put a dial indicator on them to check for excessive runout, you will know the real story.

See Dave Zeckhausen`s white paper on Brake Bedding, it will describe how to get rid of this.

Click to expand...

Great advice...will look Into this

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Did you ever figure out what the issue was? I am experiencing the same noise cruising at low speed. It's not constant. My car is all wheel drive, the noise is coming from the driver side front tire.

Similar issue here, but for mine, seems like the rotational sound is from the passenger side of front wheel, at relatively low speed, new brake pad/rotor, tire is also relatively good, 100K mileage, waiting for advice, thank you all

By the way, I experienced a very stiff/hard steering wheel some time ago, but funnily that disappeared when I drove it to the dealer to look at, so I can't show the symptoms at dealership, and they did look at, nothing found, so far the steering feels fine, not sure if this is related to the rotational noise thing at front wheel, thanks

mostly it’s the bad pulley noise.