Hi guys, new here but have spent plenty of time reading over some of the past threads.

I recently picked up a Mini, it's had some bearing type of noise at low speed coming from the front end. The seller said it was tyre noise but I knew it wasn't. I was part-exing a lemon with it so was happy to take it on and fix it. I'm not the best when it comes to diagnosing noises but here is the story so far...

I initially thought it was a wheel bearing, both seemed fine when I checked. I noticed one of the discs was warped when I was checking. I replaced them and it turns out it wasn't warped, the hub wasn't running true. I replaced the wheel bearing on that side (hub is part of it). That was sorted but the noise was still there.

The noise didn't sound like it was coming from either side which made me think it was the diff. With the car jacked up it sounded a bit gnarly (see video) when you rotate a wheel and it picks up the slack. I thought it was the diff bearings. That's a big job and during it i've stripped the whole front end down. I replaced the longer drive shaft as I wasn't happy with the bearing in the middle, it didn't feel that smooth (I thought this was probably the culprit). I also replaced the clutch, release bearing and the diff bearings.

After all that work the car sounds the same and i'm getting frustrated. All that's left on the front end that's not been replaced is 1 drive shaft and 1 wheel bearing. Both of which seemed fine during the strip down and I don't think the noise is coming from one side or the other.

The tyres are 215/35/18's and shitty budgets, i've swapped the front and rears and it made no difference. The noise is too loud for tyres I think.

I'm left wondering if the actual differential is at fault. I didn't really have a look at it, are there even bearings in it, can they get loud? It's an open diff by the way. The bearings were pressed on by a gearbox specialist, i'd have thought if there was an issue with it, they'd have noticed and told me. Here is a video of me moving a wheel. I'm rocking it back and fore to take up the free play and make the noise, at 2 times in the video I spin the wheel and there is no noise from the diff, i'm thinking this noise may be perfectly normal for a mini gearbox, maybe you guys can let me know?


To sum up the noise, it's only noticeable at lower speeds, can't hear it on the motorway. It does increase with speed but only up to a certain point. (where I guess it's drowned out by wind and engine noise). If you put it in neutral it makes no difference (so i'm ruling out the gearbox), braking makes no difference either (so ruling out them). Anyone have any ideas?

 

does it get louder when you turn to one side? sounds like my messed up cv boots on my old car. check to see if you have grease on the boots as that could indicate a rip in them

 

Cornering makes no difference to the noise. The boots were all intact, not ripped or lost it's grease. Maybe i'll just buy another drive shaft to rule it out, they are really cheap on ebay.

 

Sounds like you have replaced a number of things... Have you changed the gear box oil..? How many miles are on this MINI? What year is it?

 

Yeah, I have replaced the gear oil, I had the gearbox apart, there was no metal filings inside which kind of makes me think it's probably not the actual diff.

What do you think of the video, does it sound normal?

It's 2003 with 100,000 miles on it.

 

If you had the gear box apart as well and didn't see any metal shavings in there then I would say that's not the problem... I had the same year you have.. I really did like that MINI.. I listened to your video a few times and the sound is what mine made also when turning the wheel back and forth... But I understand you have a noise your trying to track down yet?

 

That noise in the video is probably completely unrelated to the one i'm trying to fix. It does seem like a typical gearbox noise to me.

If I disregard that, I guess that leaves me with a driveshaft and a wheel bearing as that's all that's not been replaced. As I can't pick a side the noise is coming from, maybe it's coming from the inner CV joint. That said, wouldn't the noise change during cornering?

 

Any updates on this, as I seem to have a similar noise :(

 

I put it down to tyres in the end. I ended up selling the car before I changed them so can't be 100‰

 

Bummer, my noise is definitely not the tires