Morning All
OK, my much loved Mondeo 2.0 Ghia X (manual, petrol) has now racked up
140,000 miles, over the six years I've had it. Think I'd better look at changing it soon, as I feel there's almost nothing left on the clutch, but that's another story!!Can anyone help with this one? Back in the summer, I was driving round France on a camping holiday when I started to notice some odd roadwheel noise, and at the time, I couldn't work out which wheel it was coming from. It was a low rumble, which was certainly linked to wheel RPM rather than engine RPM. The noise is best described as a kind of 'whumpa-whumpa-whumpa' (!) sound, almost as if something large and sticky is adhering to the tyre. Anyhow, I decided that the noise was coming from the passenger side, and actually swapped the spare out onto both front and rear nearside tyres before going for a short drive to see if the noise had disappeared - no joy.
There was also more vibration than normal, but I had all four wheels balanced on my return to the UK, and the car was much smoother after that. Although the 'whumpa' noise remained, decided to 'live with it' for the time being, as I couldn't find the fault.
So yesterday afternoon, I'm at the petrol station checking the tyre pressures (in the pitch black, as usual!). Doing a quick tyre health check, I knew that both rear tyres were getting near the end of their life, so I checked the tread to see if they were still legal. But bugger me - while the tyre on the offside rear is OK, the tyre on the nearside rear is TOTALLY bald on the outer 50% of the tread. And I mean bald as in, like a slick. Shite! So I'm now confident that I have pinned down the 'rogue wheel' that is making the noise.
So my question to the group: There is clearly a suspension / bearing fault at the nearside rear. Has anyone heard of a wheel bearing causing this kind of colossal tyre wear? Is this likely to be the cause? As far as rear suspension components go, both the rear shock absorbers were replaced (with genuine Motorcraft parts) last year, as were the rear anti-roll bar links (for the tenth time!). What other rear suspension components could have failed? Other bushes etc seem to be OK.
If anyone has encountered this type of 'whumpa' noise or its associated tyre wear, then I'd be very grateful. I don't really want to put a brand new Michelin on there to have it disappear down the toilet in two weeks!! :)
Thanks to all for any advice.