I partially satisfy the STW stereotype (IT and Audi). The car is a 6 year old A6 with 65k on it. I’ve had it from new so know the history. Recently I think it’s getting noisier from the back of the car. Sound like rumbly road/tyre noise from the rear. Noticeable as speed increases. There’s no noticeable vibration so it’s not a wheel balance issue (I think).

I thought wheel bearings but I’ve jacked it up this morning and there’s no play at all that I can feel though the rear pads are dragging the disks a bit (is this normal?).

I wonder if it’s the tyres as they wear, losing shape or whatever? They are pukka Bridgestones so no Cheng slime.

Any ideas please chaps (and chapesses if you know your motoring onions).

You can get noise from wheel bearings a long time before to get any noticeable play.

Sounds strange BUT you may find it’s the front bearings that are gone.
They can often manifest as a noise from the rear.
Also they don’t have to have a huge amount of play to be going – they could be dry or notched hence the noise.

I had this on a 2002 vw passat.

Its the rear tyres, they wear funny and you get “saw tooth effect” on them and it creates the noise you speak of.

Try swapping your wheels front to back to see if it cures it.

Cheers

Steve

I had the front up as well and couldn’t feel any play. This is the second set of rears and I don’t recall the first pair getting noisy as they wore. They lasted to about 50k so theses ones are just young pups at the mo.

If you can’t tell the bearings on the way out by feel (play), how do you tell? I was going to swap fronts and rears to see if it goes away. It’ll be like a management course puzzle using the spare and one jack 🙂

50k/<6 years out of wheel bearings ?

do you do a lot of hand brake turns ?

You will struggle to feel play in a wheel bearing that is only rumbling.
Could be a bad tyre, feel the tread, if it has got the sawtoothing you can feel it on the tread, will feel rough around the circumference.
I would think it will be a wheel bearing
Or could be a partially seized wheel caliper, that is dragging on the discs and causing a noise, although less likely

Look at the tyres, especially if they are Pirreli.

Cheers.

Deffo the tyres wearing!

Hand brake turns? Errrm no. It’s got one of those silly electric hand brakes, horn on yoofs get with them when showing off God only knows…

The pads are dragging a bit on both sides whilst the front are totally free. Wonder if that’s it. I’ll have a feel of the tyres. They are hardly worn and look ok. I’ll fondle them to see if that helps… Failing all that, the rears will go to the front to see if that makes any difference.

It should be the inside of the tread that will be worn.

Rub your hand over it one way and it will be smooth but the other way will be quite rough.

Check for uneven tyre wear, inside as Renton says.
Dragging brake.
Bit premature for bearings surely.
Does your radio not go louder?

Had the same on my A4 at 163k – I was convinced it must be a wheel bearing at that mileage.

However, I took it for a service at the local Audi specialists and the guy from the garage drove me to the train station in it. After about 2 minutes, he said to me :

“Have you got Avons on this?”

Me: “Er, yes” ( ZZ3s)

Him: “Thought so.”

Anyway, to cut a long story short, a new set of Dunlops and the car is silent again. If your tyres are getting worn, I’d wager it’s them. Certain tread patterns seem prone to the ‘sawtooth’ effect described above, i.e. some tread blocks seem taller than others as you feel around the circumference of the tyre and it creates that drumming effect.

Does it make the same racket if you put them on the front?

Go to alignment garage who’s got Hunter laser equipment. My sawtooth was eliminated and noise had gone. Got print out *before and *after too.

Nope just the back mate!!

So if I swap them over, all will be well. Butterflies and roses. 🙂

Thats too early to be wheel bearings. If front brand tyres diff from rear self’ swap round to check

I’m no car mechanic but when I had this on my passat and vectra swapping them over cured it.

I had this on a 2002 vw passat.

Its the rear tyres, they wear funny and you get “saw tooth effect” on them and it creates the noise you speak of.

Try swapping your wheels front to back to see if it cures it.

Cheers

Steve

I had this on a 2001 Passat, there was almost a chunk of tread missing every 5cm or so on the inside edge of the tyre, moved them to the front first, the noise was ridiculous, replaced the damaged tyres and had 4 wheel alignment done as well – 20k on and it’s fine.

WOOOWWW– before you start changing round tyres etc etc etc- Check your tyre pressures!! Some brands rumble like buggery at the wrong psi!
Next I would actually clean out the inner edge of the rear calipers with a stiff brush and remove any rust on the outer edge of the rear discs- my Passat was occasionally plagued by noise caused by a build up of brake dust rubbing against rust on the outer edge of the caliper- and the occasional bit of grit stuck down behind the backing plate!
Tyres will not feather of their own accord, there is either a pressure related or mechanical related issue or a tyre that has been subjected to abnormal skidding etc.
If that all okay I would go for the wheel bearing being on the way out but remember to also check all the rear suspension bushes as any wear/rips will allow the wheel to toe in/out.

Thanks Gents. My involvement will be limited to adding air, swapping wheels round and opening my wallet. Nice fella in overalls daaaan Audi can do the more complicated (read dirty) stuff. 🙂

Suggsey it’s a common thing on the passats which share the same platform as the Audi due to the design of the rear suspension.

Suggsey it’s a common thing on the passats which share the same platform as the Audi due to the design of the rear suspension.

I had one, the only time it started to feather tyre edges were when the rear bushes were fubarred and it allowed just sufficient movement to affect the rear tow in/out under braking and acceleration.

As others have suggested this sounds like the rear tyres have feathered. This happens because the rear tyres only wear in one direction. The front tyres wear more evenly becuase they do the steering. You are unlikely to cure the noise by swapping the tyres – you won’t wear the tyres down evenly again. However the tyres should be perfectly safe.
The way to avoid is to swap the rear wheels to the front when you get the front tyres changed. Any good tyre place will do this for little/no extra charge.

Thanks for this. I’ll get into serious trouble with the ‘new tyres always go on the driven wheels’ brigade but, shhhhhhh. We won’t let on 🙂

Could also be handbrake shoes rubbing. I’d try changing wheels front to back and tyre pressures first. If that solves it, I d still get garage to check bushes to fix what caused uneven wear.

If it’s not that they would check brakes, hand brake shoes. If there fine can only be wheel bearings

No handbrake shoes on modern audis, to be honest without attempting to cause offence to anyone who has previously posted in this thread i’d take it to an independent alignment specialist rather than rely on the STW knowledge base, it doesn’t have to be primarily an Audi based specialist but if you are anywhere near Edinburgh i recommend Star performance at Kirkcaldy, they do the 4 wheel alignment/rolling road on my Mk2 ABT Golf, and my mates ABT RS4 (before the **** sold it) and ABT Q7. Well worth it and more importantly i trust them, coming from me that’s a surprising admission.

Def saw tooth wear on rear tyres. Both of my vw’s have done this.