droning noise

hi there, hope someone can help me with an annoying droning sound coming from the front of the car(it's not the wife before anyone tells me). Thought it was wheel bearings but had both fronts replaced and it's still there. the noise is not engine speed or load related but vehicle speed. the noise seems to start around 30MPH and progressively gets louder as the car gets faster. it did get quieter when the wheel bearings were done but within a week it was back to being noisy. Starting to think it might be the bearings on the flange shafts that are bolted to the front drive shafts.The drive shafts will have been disturbed when the new wheel bearings were done and this might be why it got quieter for a while.
anybody had anything similiar?
the car's a 2006 2.0TFSI Quattro with high miles 116k.

Paul

Have you tried swapping the tyres around? Sometimes, tyres wear teh tread blocks to a saw tooth pattern, which causes a droning noise on the road.

yeah that was the cheapest and first thing i tried, thanks though.

Paul

It could even be the brand or type of tyre you have.

I found that my Kumho Ecstas were noticeably quieter than the Avons that I removed.
Have you checked the undertray? Could it be catching the wind and either causing some sort of turbulence or even vibrating?

You may have a mis shaped wheel (thanks pot holed britain), try swapping a wheel front to back. If the sound moves probably the wheel being slightly egg shaped and feeding a vibration back into the car. This has happened to me unfortunately

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Originally Posted by paulperrie

hi there, hope someone can help me with an annoying droning sound coming from the front of the car(it's not the wife before anyone tells me). Thought it was wheel bearings but had both fronts replaced and it's still there. the noise is not engine speed or load related but vehicle speed. the noise seems to start around 30MPH and progressively gets louder as the car gets faster. it did get quieter when the wheel bearings were done but within a week it was back to being noisy. Starting to think it might be the bearings on the flange shafts that are bolted to the front drive shafts.The drive shafts will have been disturbed when the new wheel bearings were done and this might be why it got quieter for a while.
anybody had anything similiar?
the car's a 2006 2.0TFSI Quattro with high miles 116k.

Paul

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Funnily enough I've just posted a similar question on the Jetta section. I also was going to do a wheel-swap, but having read your posts I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth the bother.

Betcha it's the tyres. Replaced three wheel bearings unnecessarily on mine because I couldn't believe that tyres alone could become so noisy. Changed to my winter wheels and the noise disappeared. Left with two scarcely worn tyres that are unuseable.
Deaks.

thanks for all the posts, will try and get a shot of wheels and tyres off my friends A4 and take it from there.