What's wrong with my car?
 

Inspired by Carr's thread "What's wrong with my lawnmower", and by all y'all.

What I have is a noise. This noise is around and about the right front. It matches the speed of the tire. At highway speeds it is fast enough to be a buzz. It doesn't get louder or software at speeds, it remains the same volume. And it's a light volume, unless I'm driving next to a building where it reflects back at me. It's an almost ignorable volume.

It is not a "click" noise. In my history I have had several things embed in my sticky tires; nails, screws, someone's bent key... these all make a click every time the tire goes round. This sounds more like I'm running over something soft.

But the noise is not there all the time. Hard to say when it's happening and not happening. Today, I think I noticed that it started after a swift right turn, and seemed to stop after a left, but it's so intermittent that it's hard to make a reliable guess out of it.

I tried to rule out wheel bearings by jacking the car up and trying to wobble the wheel across its vertical axis. There's a Youtube that shows how to do this. The wheel felt solid.

I thought it was happening when the tires got warmed up, so I took it to a tire place. The owner of the place drove it around for five minutes and of course, the noise never happened. The noise was happening on the way in, stopped happening while he drove it, and started up again ten minutes after driving out of the place!

But the dude said the tires should be warmed up enough to show it and otherwise, they felt completely smooth and fine to him. It's true, I don't believe this noise ever becomes something I feel, when I'm driving down the road.

So now I'm angry, confused, and humiliated, except that I'm not angry. And I know I should do what any sane, rational person would do, which is to turn the stereo up and ignore the problem until it becomes something that makes a much louder noise and/or vibrations, making it easy to diagnose and list a price for.

Nerd. http://cellar.org/2014/whistling.gif

The rocking the tire works with the normal forever inner/outer wheel bearings with a big ass washer and spindle nut. But there is a second design with a bolt on hub containing sealed bearings and sometimes the antilock reluctor and pickup. I'm not sure that method would be valid with that design.

Have you got bubblegum stuck to your tire? :D

Seriously though, while it's probably rooted in the car's mechanics, minor sounds that come and go and quicken when the vehicle speeds up can be connected to airflow around and through the vehicle. For example:

My car has two air filters, one for the engine and one for the cabin air circulation system which can bring in fresh air from the outside. I had an intermittent sound that went from being a flapping to a buzz with increasing vehicle speed. It too was coming from the right front. After checking the wheel well and engine compartment for anything loose, I went inside to check the vent system. The disposable air intake filter, concealed in the dash behind and beneath the glove compartment (removable for access), had a leaf stuck in it. I took the car for a spin and the leaf vibrated like a reed. Changed the air filter, problem solved. [/True story, no shit, believe it or not]

It's your brakes. The pad is occasionally rubbing against the rotor, it will come and go and be a low hum or slight metal on metal rubbing, the sound will go away when you drive faster or when you turn the wheel away from the side generating the noise.

You can confirm, or negate, what John Adams said the next time you hear the sound by applying light pressure on the brake. With a little pressure, the sound should at least change, if not stop. I would see if I had a brake caliper that was not sliding like it should.

If the sound doesn't change or stop with a tap on the brake pedal, it's probably something else.

If it's front wheel drive, might be a warning sign of impending axle bearing trouble.

Application of brakes has no effect on the noise.

Now I'm leaning more toward axle bearings.

A dying axle bearing will make an unmistakeable cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck sound from the offending wheel during the turn, and will (unless it's about to fall out) clear up after the turn (straightening the steering wheel).

ETA: Does it sound kinda like this?

Kinda, but less volume and maybe a little less clicky. I've had CV joints go before and got the click on turns. This happens while going forward.

I might pull the whole wheel and just look for stuff?

Never hurts to put the old eyeball on things.

Could be a physical interference situation. A stick stuck in the frame or some such...

Update, this has continued all this time and made me paranoid. The B-grade mechanics place thought it might be the axle and gave me a fabulous price on replacing it, so I did that, and the noise seemed to be less after that, but still present.

I'm just turning up the stereo. If the axle isn't going to die then it must be something less important.

This is the Forester now?

I occasionally get a light scraping noise from my left front tire. It's the dust shield scraping against the wheel hub. It's a thin ?aluminum? layer that just needs to be pried back a bit with a screwdriver. could it be that on yours?

Have you tried swapping the front wheels to see if the noise changes sides?
If it doesn't it would eliminate the tire/wheel/hubcap.

The Forester. I'm not ruling anything out, anymore. It's intermittent. It comes and goes, the noise. I haven't swapped stuff, only because I only have the scissor jack. I think my tire place does rotations for free...

I've got a floor jack and 2 jack stands if you're wanting to try it someday

Appreciate it sir

That is possible but J's kid, yeah same one, wrenches at the Tires + and will do it right quick one Saturday. That's where the axle came in, although she asked me to have someone else do it - I still got the friends and family discount, which is very meaningful there.

Well the rotation did nothing so this morning I had the A-team at the dealership look at it

They needed a stethoscope

It's in the transmission

Based on the mileage of the car, the guy said well this is too expensive to fix, his suggestion was to drive it until it dies and declare last rites.

Have you considered an exorcism? My truck needs one. It's at the dealership with a blown compressor, that's another $1471 because they're rebuilding the whole system. They were saying something about the manager's daughter getting married......

When, and, if...find a junkyard transmission, and a friendly mechanic. It's kinda rare to find a car that "ain't worth fixing", what with how long cars go now-a-days...

But international business magnates need reliability. :haha:

Yes and people who drive into the ghetto

at this time I believe a sensible crossover in the used markets may be within reach

it must be able to load a bass speaker cabinet in and out, without damaging interior or fingers

Ah yes, the old load $5,000 worth of instruments, into a $1,000 car, to play a $50 gig. :haha:

Oh yah Grav, I should say, this is a manual transmission! So I don't know. The whole thing is still a bit of a terrible mystery.

But the one thing I believe with all my heart is that I am going to have to trade this in pronto before this noise can be heard non-intermittently.

I am a very honest person.

We're open until 6pm today

♫ Here he comes to save the daaaayyyyy. ♫

ew, that's creepy

Wull -- uh --

goddammit

I was just being glib. don't feel like you HAVE to, or SHOULD come to the Hill for your automotive needs. I will help if I can though, as I'm sure you know.

If I was going to end up in an off-lease Rogue from Carsense anyway...

A row-yer-own is even cheaper!

:)

Hey Jim, have these Liberty Mutual commercials cut into the gap insurance sales, or helped by making people aware of possible disaster?

I use them to sell it. Their new vehicle replacement deal is not so great. They do a substitution of collateral, so you're still as upside down as you were when you totalled it. If you had GAP, you get to go get a new car and start at zero.... which is often better than where they were.... So it's not hard to overcome. I'd say it helps more than it hurts

Thanks, I've been wondering about that since those commercials appeared. I'm always skeptical of insurance companies TV commercials, as they usually leave out the fine print or it's impossible to read. I'd bet the large majority of people who buy an LM policy never read the fine print until they have a claim.

wow
Attachment 53053
such shiny
Attachment 53054
very Roge

Nuttin'. Ain't nuttin' wrong with that car. Uh UH!

Aaaaaannd that's her name. Well done.

It does have a slightly flappy engine cover on the bottom that needs securing, but we have found that is standard equipment, on all Nissans.

The color is "Super Black". Because a car color can never simply be "Black", and "Jet Black" and "Tuxedo Black" are already used.

I'm calling it "None More Black".

:lol:

It's the SV model...

So Very!

The new Toadmobile, I assume...Vurry nize.

How do YOU pronounce Roge?

I pronounce Doge like Rogue, so that's not much of a name. Although, I'm against naming cars anyway unless they have a 'The' in front. like ...The sloth, or The Road Beast

I have always pronounced Doge like Rogue, but I was thinking it's funnier if it's like "Vogue". But I think the soft g is really how it should have been pronounced all along

And yeah, my car names have never stuck all that much, but if I could alter the nameplate to actually spell ROGE and get a Doge emblem...

... and an o and ery to complete the So Very...

Let's make that happen

I could get a D from an ARMADA

that's the only model with a D in it

ETA Hmmm

I'll see what I can do ;)


PathfinDer

I can get a chrome D today, from a Woodbury Nissan dealer trade, but the letters are only 1". I think you need 2"

Wait, rogue and vogue and not pronounced the same? :confused:

Maybe they're thinking of rouge, like the makeup?

I don't know what Tony was talking about with the soft g stuff. I was just gonna let it go by, but now since you guys are already breaking his balls....

When the Rogue first came out, many people called it a Rouge. There were even a few bulletins from NMAC misspelled that way. Roje. such Roje. So Very. Much AWD. good times.

But the Much/Very Doge, do you pronounce that like the g in Pogues, or the g in giraffe, or the g in rouge?


I say it like it rhymes with "Pogues," except the O is elongated, like a very Southern ou dipthong.

I've always said Dough'G

D'oh'G

Doag?

lol

Slate's article on pronouncing it

This article suggests that the soft g is because it's a historical word and the youtube I linked earlier is how to pronounce that word.

But the Slate reader poll:

http://cellar.org/2015/wowdogechart.png

"You like dags?"

I'm goin' with Doge with the hard g, as the car's name; because if it's Roge with the hard g, it's the same pronunciation as the original name Rogue.

#blackNissansmatter

Be careful no smartie pants adds an extra 'd' to Doge!

Congrats on the new wheels, UT. :thumbsup:

You're a good man Charlie Brown lunberjim.