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Originally Posted by eccentric Folks,
It is high time for my Civic to adorn new tires....
....Am tired of the squealing the tires yield, as they age! |
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Originally Posted by sarathlal If Michelin Primacy 4 is available near you... |
Ultimately, had to settle for the Continental UC6 on the same stock size of 195/65 R15. The switchover clearly highlighted an already existing problem - humming/howling/helicopter noise. What I thought to be age related tire noise(6 year old Bridgestone Turanza ER300) was proven wrong! This was something else.
Background
Before deciding to change the tires, I wanted to find the root cause of the noise. Therefore, took the car to the FNG, had a test drive, individually all the wheels were lifted off the ground and any play in the X-axis / Y-axis were inspected and manually all wheels were rotated to detect any noise. No abnormalities were observed.
Driving post the tire change, the noise could be heard like a symphony. Like a live show in a theatre. Vividly explicit, that I could feel the howl is from the front driver side. Called the mechanic and informed him. He narrowed it down to the wheel bearings and asked me to bring the car. Meanwhile, without any concrete evidence of bearing failure and armed with some knowledge from Team-BHP itself,
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Originally Posted by arvi86 After a few weeks of experiencing a pretty noisy ride in the car, I finally managed to sort the problem out last weekend. It was indeed the front wheel bearings that went bust.... One of his mechanics took the car out for a test drive and confirmed that the front bearings are gone. |
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Originally Posted by ranjitnair77 Swaroop, my car's front left wheel bearing was replaced at 37k kms. I detected the problem when I heard a faint grinding noise from the front wheel. |
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Originally Posted by Altocumulus The front wheel bearings of my civic conked off again in 3 months/6k kms. |
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Originally Posted by sushrutha It's definitely not from the engine , it's from the wheels , coz I switched off AC, Blower & put the car in Neutral to check the sound, the sound exists.
If it was from the engine, then the sound should have gone when I had put in neutral while driving (speeds between 85-115kmph).
The sound is not too loud either, but definitely noticeable (faint distant helicopter sound) |
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Originally Posted by saurabhkum Today I was driving my friend's civic 2006 model and there was some sort of humming noise coming from rear left side. This noise is coming once vehicle crossed around 20 kmph. According to me it can be either due to bad Tyre as the tires are 6 year old or it may be the bearing noise? |
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Originally Posted by patron Does anybody know what happens if wheel bearings fail? I am getting a whirring noise at speeds above 20kmph. Nothing while idling. From some Civic forums I could gather the sound could be of wheel bearing noise. |
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Originally Posted by mukeshgoel I started noticing some humming sound coming from my car when I drive it. I switched off the ignition when the car was in motion to confirm if the noise is there even if the engine was off and yes, it was there.
Then got the tyres rotated and the sound increased significantly. |
I did place an order for the same via,
https://boodmo.com/catalog/part-whee...g_kit-5238268/
Coincidentally, 1 was left in stock when I placed the order and it was dispatched the next day.
Now, equipped with the new bearing, I paid a visit to the mechanic who quickly did a TD and proceeded to dislodge the right front wheel--->brake caliper + brake disc. Below picture shows the result of this operation,
Troubleshooting
On rotating the Hub by hand, grinding noise was observed. Moreover, when we place our bare hands in the coil springs of the Front RHS shocker assy or the Knuckle, vibrations could be felt during the course of rotation!
The mechanic continued the operation but wasn't successful in dislocating the driveshaft-wheel end from the Knuckle assembly. Therefore, the driveshaft-transmission end is disconnected and the whole RHS driveshaft + Knuckle + Hub as an assembly was taken to the Hydraulic press shop.
Hence, the drive shaft is removed from one end of the Knuckle and the Hub was uninstalled from the other end. The removal of the Hub finally revealed the failed wheel bearing in the knuckle housing whose seal got separated as shown in the below image,


Then, the new wheel bearing and the Hub were pressed back into the knuckle and the car was commissioned back again. The noise vanished, ride turned smooth and car felt more eager to accelerate.
Inferences
1. Old Wheel Bearing - Make: KOYO, Japan; Identification: DAC4378W
2. New Wheel Bearing - Make: NTN, Japan; Identification: AU0933-7 / 2002190406
3. OEM Honda Part No: 44300TR0951; Price: Rs. 3732.00/-
4. The press shop owner and the mechanic pointed out the poor road conditions(potholes & craters) and any unhinged driving maneuver over those is the cause they quoted. Later I recalled an event when the front wheels plunged into a heavy depression on the road at a speed of >60KMH

.
Post the tire change, the ride has become more European. The UC6 has stiffer side walls and this has stolen the comfort factor by 20% at least. And, that coupled with TRW struts & dampers, the car now feels more planted to the ground. At low speeds, some thuds and undulations could be felt, but on high speeds they were dismissed effortlessly.
Fuel efficiency too seems to have improved. A round trip of 72 KMS on a highway drive with the last 4 bars of fuel when I set off, ended the journey with 3 bars remaining! Top speed was 118 KMH & the return leg average speed was around 90 KMH. Couldn't attribute this solely due to the new tires in place or the new wheel bearing or the 3000 KM run-in Mobil1 5W30 oil or the sparse early morning traffic that day. Anyways, glad that she is back in shape.
Thank you to all the owners, ex-owners and contributors to this thread. If it weren't for the information inculcated through here, it'd be impossible to maintain this Legend

.