08 R56 S

Starting Saturday I noticed a low pitched humming at any speed above 25, accelerating, decelerating, turning left, turning right, straight, transmission in neural, brakes applied, no brakes applied it didn’t matter I could hear it from 25 up until road noise drowned it out.

Got home and jacked the car up and tugged at 12 and 6 and 9 and 3 for play and nope solid Have no play what so ever in all four wheels. Spun all four wheels and could not feel any grittyness in the rotation. Checked all four tires for being cupped and again nothing.

Fast forward to today and the sound gets slightly louder while turning left and slightly quieter while turning right which lead me back to wheel bearing so I jacked up the car again and again found no play in the wheel and no gritty ness in the rotation.

Im thinking it’s a wheel bearing, but iv never had a bearing go bad and not be able to find play or some grit while rotating the wheel so I’m questioning my diagnosis.

Could it be something other then a wheel bearing? If it is a wheel bearing is there any way to narrow it down to front or rear? Like I said in the past iv always checked by either spinning the tire to find the tight one or wiggling it to find what one has play but it seems those methods aren’t working with the mini. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have you looked at the tires for unusual wear (i.e. cupping along the inside edge of the tire)?

 

Yup, no cupping what so ever. Tried rotating tires and sound did not follow or change in frequency. The noise has gotten louder, and is clearly on the passenger side of the vehicle. Iv jacked up the car 5 or 6 times and attempted to locate any play or gritt in the bearings and still nothing. I’m going to replace the front passenger wheel bearing and hope that it solves the issue. Just odd that no play can be noticed in the bearing where usually when a bearing is this loud the play is clear as day once the car is jacked up.

 

while this might sound odd, did you check if the splash guard or the light access cover is not loose and is not rubbing against the tire?