Cintoman

Hi everyone,

So with the nice weather here to stay, I've been driving with all the windows down. And earlier today, as I was driving down some narrow city streets, I started hearing a faint whirring sound while at speed. Very tough to describe, but here goes:

Picture one of those vertical spin-the-wheel games at your local fair. They have that leather strip at the top which hits each spike on the wheel, slowing the wheel down. It's similar to that sound, although more closely spaced, almost sounding like a whir. It seems to be coming from either right side wheel, and I can only hear it when driving where the sound can bounce off something and back to me (ex: driving alongside brick buildings, or those aluminum barriers on the highways).

I can't quite tell, but it seems like the sound stops when braking. Not certain though, and I can't tell which right side wheel it may be coming from. Sorry for the tough description.

I was thinking it might be the wheel bearing, but I'm not too sure. My car only has about 18K on it. Some questions:

Any ideas what this may be?
If it were a wheel bearing, would that be covered by the 4/50K warranty?

Tires have enough thread, and the brakes seem fine. No pulling or any vibration at all. Who knows, it might be the sound of the 1.8L engine bouncing back to me.

Thanks everyone!

AndySays

do you hear this when you let off the gas pedal? is it a pitched whirl?

SlvrC230SS

maybe something loose under the wheel well.

advans

well, try to see if this is constant. does the sound speed up when your speeding up?

have you checked your wheels for any nails, etc?

AndySays

I'll have to check mine again, it might be the nail because I just got my rear tire patched up from a nail last week

Cintoman

Well, it's not a tat-----tat-----tat-----tat sound that turns into a tat-tat-tat-tat as you speed up. So I'm pretty sure it's not a nail in the tire. As for continuing when I let go of the gas, yes, I can still hear the sound. And the sound does not seem to speed up the faster I go. I'll have to try it out later today to see if it stops when I'm stepping on the brakes to slow down. Seems as though everytime I try to hear it, I get some b*st*rd behind me pumping the bass on his rice car.

Cintoman

Was checking on the other forum, and I came across this posting:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w203...ticking-2.html

On page 2, someone gave an exact description of the sound I mentioned in my first post: "It kinda sounds like a Lucky Spin wheel as you would see in Vegas, but the sound is muted abit. It is very annoying to listen to, like water torture". I'll have to see if I can jack up the car and see, or maybe I should just bring it down to the dealership since it's well under warranty. Hopefully this is it.

Cintoman

Actually, here's another post with pics:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w203...kes-sound.html

Thought I could just jack the car up and see it, but it looks like I'd have to remove the heat shields. So I'm gonna have the stealership do it. Hopefully this is the issue.

trisonics

I don't want to start a new thread so I will post here as I have some noise coming from my wheels too.

When I apply brakes and the car is coming to a stop, I hear lot of road noise between 25 mph and 15 mph. It is like I am driving on a dirt road at a slow speed. Once the speedo drops below 15, the noise is gone and it is all quiet. Do not have the same problem when acceleratingfrom 15 to 25 mph. It is only when I am decelerating from 25 to 15. Any idea what it could be? I have a 2002 C230K.

More questions after I get some answers or flaming for this

dkim

I have the same problem as u just described in my clk w209. Did u find out what the problem is? i just dropped my car off at the local mechanic to see if he could figure it out

trisonics

The alignment was off and front tires were worn out pretty bad on the right side only. Got new tires and the problem is gone. Also get tires balanced.

Cintoman

Yeah, dealership said my front tires were "scalloped" and that this was what was causing the whirring sound. I checked the thread on the OEM Pilot Primacy's, and they look OK. Can't really tell. What's strange is that some of the inner grooves on the tire are a bit more worn than other grooves next to it. It's almost as though the grooves alternate in depth, with one groove less deep than the next.

Either way, I'm going to throw on my winter tires in a few weeks, get an alignment done, and see if the problem disappears.

Cintoman