I just bought a used 2005 Mini Cooper S convertible as a project car. It has a couple issues, including ABS and DSC lights, and the horn and passenger airbag not being connected.

I'm wanting to start work on it by fixing a low growl/roar that seems to be coming from the back, maybe passenger side but I'm not sure.

How should I go about diagnosing it? I'd rather not take it to a shop if at all possible. So far the biggest possibility in my mind is a bearing going out. Would this possibly be the issue?

Edit: Forgot to say that it seems to pretty much go away with the top down...would this just be road noise?

 

How many miles? Sounds like a bad wheel bearing. They are pretty easy to change if you have a variety of tools.

 

haha...160,000 miles. How should i test to confirm it’s a bearing?

Edit: Also is a bearing something that we could pick up from a local auto parts store, or should we get something special online?

 

There are a couple ways of checking a bearing. 1) look in the back and if you see rust dust from there the bearing rollers are it’s bad 2) use a stethoscope to listen for grinding as you turn it slowly. 3) pull tire and rotate the hub. It should have a little resistance and turn smoothly. If hard to tuen, choppy or spins freely with no resistance its bad.

You can get them from autoparts or rockauto. But you’ll want the bearing and hub combo. Its just 4 bolts to remove the rear hubs.

 

thanks, I’ll check it out whenever I get a chance!