thump-thump-thump

They will have a record of the work - just go there and get them to have a look.

Si

Try it with the spare. If it's ok, take it back to Kwik Fit. Tyre could be out of round or have ply separation. Hit any kerbs lately? Maybe the wheel's buckled. DaveK.

Chandy ( snipped-for-privacy@totalise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Did they balance the wheel, too?

Couldn't be the balance weight coming off and hitting the caliper, could it?

..maybe the wheel nuts weren't tightened properly and it's about to fall off

Checked that, there's no visible movement at all with the wheel that shouldn't be there and the nuts seem tight.

Is it a FWD car? If so, try jacking up that wheel, securely chocking the others, and run it in gear to see if anything's visibly amiss. After giving it a good shake/ visual examination of course.

Steve

I had this sort of sound from a wheel that Kwik-fit had just replaced a tyre on -though it wasn't a loud noise so might not be the same thing. I took it back to Kwik fit because I thought it wasn't balanced properly.

However it turned out to be worn wheel bearings and nothing to do with the tyre or balance- perhaps the new tyre just made the noise more noticeable. It was worse when turning corners on mine though probably because of the cornering pressures on the wheel.

If you get no joy with the spare wheel give bearings a thought .

Once Kwik fit replaced the brake pads on my dad's car BACK TO FRONT!!! So I suggest giving them a check too though it's probably (and hopefully) not the problem!!

A friend had this on his Montego, and it turned out to be an "egg" on the inner wall of the tyre.

I'd take it back to Krap Fit and get them to swap it. You could diagnose it by swapping the spare over and checking.

Pete.

And making sure that traction control is switched off as well otherwise it will pull itself off the jack.

What about with the wheel that should be there?

Sorry, I'll get my coat.

Ply separation would be my bet. It's a very good description of the symptoms.

Chandy should get that wheel off ASAP. Sudden complete tyre failure can be not-so-nice.

John

Finally got a chance to have a better look yesterday. Took the wheel off, tyre looks perfect. Turning the wheel by hand didn't produce any noticible noise at any point. Even taking the wheel off and turning the hub itself the hub seemed fine, though there was a little initial 'play' before it rotated (felt like a few mil). There is a dent in the rim which wasn't major but I swapped for the spare wheel anyway with a

-slight- improvement in the amount of noise and a slight revision upwards by about 5mph of the peak intensity.

Kwik fit have diagnosed 'either a dodgy wheel bearing or a dodgy driveshaft bearing, we'll start with the wheel bearing and that will be

Chandy

Chandy wrote: .

I seem to recall something about wheel bolts being tightened too much could cause wheel bearing failures but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

In any case, I wouldn't let kwik fit do any work on it.

I can imagine that being true, though it wasn't much of a problem getting them off so don't see it as the problem.

Going to take it to National, trust them a hell of a lot more and they're already said 'about 90 quid' when I phoned. They're also literally across the road from the kwik fit so at least I can feel like I'm sticking my tongue out at them :P

Cheers peeps.

Chandy

The message from snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk contains these words:

Can't think how - there's no way on any car I've ever dismantled that the force could pass to the bearings.

By chance I had a thump-thump-thump yesterday - I'd not tightened the wheelbolts. Ooops.

Scary that my stab in the dark might even have been right....... I think the bearings for my fiesta cost =A390 from a local (non-chain) garage so that's a good price (don't know what car you have)- mind you Kwik fit told me that they wouldn't even do wheel bearings.....

i won't be going back to Kwik fit either...

The whell bearing will get a lot noisier or a lot quieter on motorway corners, a driveshaft will change more dramatically at low speeds. You always get a bit of play in a drivetrain when you turn the hub.

Hmm, well it's barely audible at all below 20 mph and can go away entirely when turning left at 60 so hopefully it's just the wheel. And equally hopefully the vibration hasn't knackered anything else! Local garage is finally open tomorrow and I'm off so they'll be my 3rd opinion and we'll go from there.

Cheers.

Chandy

Was actually two wheel bearings on the O/S. Got both gone for 110 quid and all is well with the world (okay apart from an oil leak and lack of power but can't have everything).

Thanks all.

Chandy