loud droning noise coming from rear wheels.

[homegrown]

Hi hoping someone can help me out here. My little Beast a 98 Festiva neeeds help. It started off as a quiet rumble, droning sort of sound from the rear of the car when your driving and now its very loud. It stays the same no matter what speed. Im thinking it might be the hub, bearing. not sure though. Has anyone else had this problem, Thanks.

[pottery beige]

Simple things first.. what are the rear tyres like????... sisters laser had a rumble in the back like a dead wheel bearing ended being a cheap crappy tyre dying a slow death.....

[homegrown]

Thanks, I did think of that but the noise seems much worse. I will take it in maybe a weight has come off the rim.
I'll book it in and find out. cheers.

[smally289]

Yep, as above. The Festivas suffer badly from rear tyre wear. If they are not rotated often they end up as lumpy as a bad custard.

[robjh80]

My Fiesta XR4 did the same thing, turned out the rear tryes had slightly gone out of shape .. yours may have done the same over time?

Rub your hand over the tread, you can feel the high spots that develop, very common on light front wheel drive cars apparantly, it's because there is no weight in the rear and the wheels slightly "bounce" as they go down the road, can happen due to worn shocks as well.

[svo supporter]

Pottery Beige, Smally 351 and Robjh 80 have hit the nail on the head.

Replace the rears, rotate them every 7,500 to 10,000 K and you'll never strike the noise again. all the rears are designed to do is hold the bum of the car off the road. Nothing more

[homegrown]

Thanks. appreciate the help. The back of the car doesnt make a noise at all now.
Im not sure if all that vibrating has caused issues at the front end now as there is now a rattling noise at the other end. Its only when the foot is off the accelerator. The car is a manual and you can sort of feel it under the clutch. As soon as you put your foot back on the accelerator even the slightest bit the noise is gone. I thought the sound was similar to a stuffed lifter. I noticed the oil was extremely low so gave it an oil change. After that it was abit quieter but still noticebale there. Im a bit confused why the noise disappears with your foot on the pedal and when it's off it starts to rattle again and why you can slightly feel it through the clutch. So not sure if the problem was because I ran it with low oil or a trans issue too.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Festivas have very weak rear berrings. I changed my rear every 50,000km on average but the front ones were still fine after 200,000km.

Don't know about the rear tyre wear comment, the Festivas are very light on the tyres and if rotated and pressured correctly you will get many, many tens of thousands of Km from a decent set of rubber. (I averaged 60-70,000km per set).

The drone I had was very evident between 80-105 km/hr but vanished at 110km/hr which peeved me off at thew time as I was doing a lot of freeway driving.

Would look into the rear berrings first. I was sick of paying to get them done I taught myself to do em... it is very easy.

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

Festivas have very weak rear berrings. I changed my rear every 50,000km on average but the front ones were still fine after 200,000km.

Don't know about the rear tyre wear comment, the Festivas are very light on the tyres and if rotated and pressured correctly you will get many, many tens of thousands of Km from a decent set of rubber. (I averaged 60-70,000km per set).

.

Whilst I'm not saying that the whel bearings aren't the problem, if the tyres aren't rotated reguarly on these, they start to go lumpy, as there is no weight in the back of these cars to hold the tyre firmly to the road surface. So what happens is, the tyre "skips" across the road surface when you go over bumps, therefore causing uneven wear across the whole tread face.

When this uneven wear across the tread face occurs, it starts to sound like a wheel bearing has went west on you. It's very common on FWD cars.

So hopefully this explains the "tyre wear" comments that have surfaced

[homegrown]

Thanks for the replies. Still learning about these cars and their common faults.
I still havnt sussed out this noise from the motor either. If I ever get a weekend off I can hopefully have a descent look at it. The little sports car isnt dead yet. People give them a bad rap but mine has served very well considering it gets used as a work horse.
Not sure about this tapping noise that is there except for when your foot on the accelerator though.