Whining noise in car, gets louder as you go faster?

Wife?

Small child?

Sticky brake?

Turbo about to go? Turbo diesels do whine/whistle although modern turbo diesels are quiet. They do whistle/whine a lot when the turbo is on it's way out...might be worth a check.

Cheap tyres?

I've only had wheel bearings go once many years ago and as I recall I couldn't feel any play in them but the whining and getting less when turning does sound familiar

It doesnt change if its put in neutral, or clutch in.

So it is related to the speed of the car, not the engine?   Sounds like a wheel bearing,  or brake or a wheel rubbing on something.

it will go quiet in a right hand bend

Again, bearing, wheel or brake. Should be easy for a garage to spot with the car up.

Back seat driver?

Classic wheel bearing symptoms those.

Yes, faster i drive, the more she screams

no signs of anything on brakes or tyres etc

its not the turbo

Vehicle, not engine speed related?

Changes when you corner or put lateral load in?

Wheel bearing.

Is it engine or drivetrain?

does it do it stationary/idling?

Does it increase/decrease with speed?

Could be wheel bearing - but they can quieten down under braking as the caliper pulls the wheel back into line.

Brake backing disc / splash guards rubbing the disc - pull them away from the disc gently.

Stone trapped in a pad

Handbrake shoes friction material separated from shoes

Inner arch liner collapsed and rubbing on wheel (had this with a hire Clio after a dukes of Hazard moment).

Non of the above.

Put the roof up

Then check for stones in caliper

I had this happen and it was the bearings going in the gearbox

brake backing discs- one loose, one tied up- but im told it just gives a tinny rattle.

cant tell if its back front or side

yes, just quietens on a righthander

You’ll not feel a wheel bearing rattle unless it’s properly fubared.  They just get grumbly or whiney.  Decent garage will take the calipers off and then feel for roughness by hand.

Differential bearings?

Wheel bearing possibly. Usually won't see play until they're absolutely shod. Replaced several that are fine when spinning the wheel but were the cause of the noise.

well, that leaves wheel bearings then

2have been replaced, so do i decide which end of the car it comes from, and replace that, or is there a better test i can do?

so if it goes quiet in a righthander, does that mean its worn on the left or right?

Its almost certainly the wheel bearing. Don't leave it too long or it might destroy the ABS sensor which is expensive if a garage fixes it. Don't ask me how I know.

Wheel bearings are usually a rhythmic whine that speeds up and slows down with the car, in my experience.

Is that what you have? Or a constant whine?

+1 for not letting it eat the ABS sensor, also cost me a lot.

Sounds like a wheel bearing

I had an Octavia a few years older than that, developed a really annoying whine which turned out to be from wind over slightly deformed rear window rubber trim, was a common problem according to briskoda.  A very fine application of decent black silicone along the length into the rubber v shaped grooves sorted it. Would fit with what you describe, likely a trim on RHS as the wind angle across it would change and be shielded to an extent through turns. You can trial it with electrical tape

Whilst giving a mate’s girlfriend a lift, I once went sufficiently fast in my old rally car  that the whining stopped.  Either the frequency had gone above the level that I could hear, or she was curled up in a ball sobbng quietly.

Either way, she didn’t ask for a lift ever again

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2have been replaced, so do i decide which end of the car it comes from, and replace that, or is there a better test i can do?

so if it goes quiet in a righthander, does that mean its worn on the left or right?

It doesn't matter if it's left or right - you do both, but it's almost certainly the left bearing as during a RHT, the right wheel bearing will be under substantially less load.

You don't normally do both bearings just because one has gone. It doesn't affect handling.  And IME one going doesn't seem to mean the other is at the end of its life. They only need doing in pairs if they're built into a brake drum or disk as a single unit.

But yes, it's the inside wheel on corners where it goes quiet.  Front/rear you can usually figure it out by listening or jack the car up and have a feel, it's usually obvious once the wheel is off.

Depending on the car it's either a really quick job or an absolute nightmare depending on how it's built.

Yes, as above sounds like wheel bearings. Just replace the one that's gone. But fwiw, when they started going on a Megane I once had, they all went within about 5k miles at around the 80k miles mark. The same car also had sticky/seized calipers later, but that didn't whine.

I have a dodgy window in my car that's often a crack open. Sometimes it makes the wind whistle, which of course gets louder as you go faster. It's only on one side so makes sense that it might stop on certain corners, but I haven't gone round any sufficiently fast corners to test this.

Anyway, just saying. Wouldn't want you to take all the wheels off and find that you've just left the window open :-p

Someone's cable tied a harmonica somewhere under the car

Wheel bearing.

No guarantee it's not one of the replaced ones if they were the cheapest no name bearings. Paying extra for something that a manufacturer you've heard of will put their name on will be less than the labour to replace a cheap one again and again.

No guarantee it’s not one of the replaced ones if they were the cheapest no name bearings. Paying extra for something that a manufacturer you’ve heard of will put their name on will be less than the labour to replace a cheap one again and again.

Currently annoyed that 6 years ago I bought the cheapest exhaust I could for the Fiesta, firmly believing that there was no way we would still be driving it in 6 years.

1 new back box

1 extra clamp to cover a rusted joint

and 1 entire new system later I've just replaced it with the same again because there's no way we'll still be driving it in another 6 years ?

 it’s the inside wheel on corners where it goes quiet.  

I was leaning towards the more weight on (the outside corner) bearing would make it go quiet- not the inside one. I have no idea how it works though

No, they tend to get louder the more loaded they are / go quiet when unloaded.

I remember once having to take an MGF on a test drive for the garage because the customer thought it had a rough wheel bearing.  2 or three of us must have driven it, taking it for it's MOT, etc, and all came back with a different answer.  Turned out it was a front and a rear, a left and a right so whatever way you turned the noise moved around!

If you jack it up it's usually easy to feel though. There might not be any play in them yet but they'll feel rough just like bike wheels feel rough when you spin the axle long before they develop play.

Fan belt?

i understand thta the weight on the bearing makes it noisier, but does the outside bearing get more weight in the corner?

if so, why?

Get some good noise cancelling earbuds, they really help!

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Weight transfer/centrifugal (or is it centripetal?) force as you corner.

However, although it's usually the outer wheel on cornering, that's not always the case. I have seen bearings get noisier under lower load, as it depends on what exactly is causing the noise, and any resonance that might be amplifying/reducing any noise/vibrations.

so excentrifugal forz-- does it only apply to the outside wheels, ordoes the grip on them cause the inside wheels raise slightly and so less weight on them?

Does the corner radius being longer on the outside wheels mean that the forces are the same inside and out, only since the inside is in a tighter curve, moreweight must be on the inside?

Just because no one has mentioned it yet I’m going for a CV joint if it’s not the bearing.

im just looking forward to the xmas post to arrive so i can go out and fit the new bearing in the sleet and darkness

Radial acceleration is applied through the cars centre of mass but the reaction force coming from the tyre friction is applied offset to this.  This creates a moment force around the cars centre of mass which places additional force onto the outside tyres and unloads the inside tyres.  As the radial force increases and the car starts to lean, this transfer of load accelerates as the cars centre of mass now also moves more toward the outside wheels.

thanks, does that mean that the suspension sends the bodywork to the outside in a corner, so more weight is on the outside wheelbearings then?

The outside bearing does get more load in the corner. The car leans to the outside because the increased load is compressing the suspension. The physics of it is that tyres are pushing the car sideways - they push at road level, but the centre of mass of the car is higher, so there's a rotation force. On a bike you counter it by leaning the bike.

Classic wheel bearing fault.