strange whining sound

[m100mad]

Hi guys. Had my Elan for 6months, and recently developed a horrible noise. At 1st I thought it was a wheel bearing, it starts whining/rumblin/maybe even slightly grindin noise at 35mph. I replaced wheel bearin and no change. The strange thing about the noise is that its tone changes as u steer. any slight movement of the steering wheel affects the sound. in fact if u steer right it tends 2 get worse and left tends 2 make it dissapear! cant feel it through the steering wheel at all. the more i listen 2 it the more im confused, its comin from N/side but not quite as far out as the wheel, if that makes any sense! I can c nothin failing the shaft, brakes are not rubbon anythin, no loss of trans fluid, cud it be the driveshaft? My worst fear is gearbox, tho why wud steering affect this?
hope some1 can help.

[Dave M]

Did you change BOTH wheel bearings in the front?

[gmacz]

My funny noises were the wheel bearings.From what I have read, most transmission noises seem to be wheel bearings.The noise travels through the transmision and if you get someone to listen for the noise,they will usually have a different opinion of where it is coming from.Forget about free play in the bearings,a visual inspection is the best way.Yours Gmacz

[m100mad]

only changed passengerside. the noise is def not drivers side?

[Dave Eds]

where in Herts? Maybe I could take a look - doesn't sound like gearbox to me though.

just PM'd you.

[ESM]

Its notoriously difficult to nail down the source of wheel bearing noise in the Elan. I would not rule out a rear bearing as the problem. In my experience (and I've had more than I want) the front bearings haven't been very noisy when they've failed, however, if you jack up the car and check the play of the wheel on the bearing then the culprit often becomes obvious. I've found the rears to be much noisier when they go but problem wheel is hard to get right - check play of the rears too (but unlike this front this doesn't always help). I use the corner hard and listen carefully method - the side that is unloaded when the noise goes away is the side with the problem. Since you already have this information and know the nearside is probably at fault and you have replaced the front bearing, I'd have a close look at the rear on that side - don't trust the apparent source of the noise...

Usually I have have to tip the car in hard to get bearing noise to go away - its strange your noise goes away so easily...

[theelanman]

mine started doing this yesterday.....

mine doesnt make a sound in a straight line only when I load the N/S wheel on right hand bends......I get no noise on left hand bends......
Ive got a feeling its wheel bearings but I'll find out tomorrow when I take the day off to investigate!!!!!........

[Monty]

Its notoriously difficult to nail down the source of wheel bearing noise in the Elan. I would not rule out a rear bearing as the problem. In my experience (and I've had more than I want) the front bearings haven't been very noisy when they've failed, however, if you jack up the car and check the play of the wheel on the bearing then the culprit often becomes obvious. I've found the rears to be much noisier when they go but problem wheel is hard to get right - check play of the rears too (but unlike this front this doesn't always help). I use the corner hard and listen carefully method - the side that is unloaded when the noise goes away is the side with the problem. Since you already have this information and know the nearside is probably at fault and you have replaced the front bearing, I'd have a close look at the rear on that side - don't trust the apparent source of the noise...

Usually I have have to tip the car in hard to get bearing noise to go away - its strange your noise goes away so easily...

I`ve found the opposite, that u can get a whining noise from the front bearings but there`s no play in them. Had to replace mine after i replaced the gearbox

[theelanman]

just done mine......quiet as a mouse now....
the n/s was definately on its way out and the n/s had started showing wear so did em both!!!!
at £50+postage from s7J you can go wrong......
theyre similar prices else where too mind.....
cheers
g