Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Recently I've had my M35 in at Nissan for a service and I mentioned that I thought the front wheel bearings may need replacing. I thought just the front right needed doing but Nissan told me that both front ones would need replacing. At $260 a side plus fitting, they're not cheap - so I want to be as sure as possible before getting these fixed.

Basically the noise has been getting slowly worse over the last few months - and is now audible at all speeds unless there is significant wind noise or something. It sounds basically like excessive road noise but gets sort of higher pitched the faster I go and is quite low pitched when driving slowly. The pitch goes up/down with vehicle speed, and is unrelated to revs or throttle. ie. Putting it in neutral and letting it roll makes no difference, and also there is no difference when coasting or under heavy throttle or even braking - it seems to only be related to how fast the car is moving.

However a couple of people have told me that it wouldn't be wheel bearings since the car has only done 92000km. I just cant think of anything else it would be.

If you've had your wheel bearings replaced, what did it sound like? Is it unusual for them to need replacing as low as 92000km?

Just dont wanna spend ~$600 getting them fixed if its not the problem...

Yep.

Had my front passenger bearing assembly replaced at about 86,000k.

Sounded much like what you are describing here... Very embarrassing in pear hour traffic!

Took it in to Nissan (Ferntree Gully) and Christmas time, they diagnosed it straight away and ordered the part from Japan.

10 days (not business days) later it was installed.

They had to make "a special tool" to get it on as it is "different" to any Aus delivered cars (what a surprise!).

btw, the front wheel bearing assembly was $211 delivered from Japan.

I was mistakingly quoted this as the install price, which they honored.

  • 1 month later...

Well I finally got to the bottom of the whirring noise problem.

Turns out it IS actually just tyre noise, but the reason its louder than normal is becuase the tyres are wearing in such a way that its leaving a lot of sharp edges of rubber, particularly on the inside edge of the tyre. First I had the front passenger wheel off and had the space saver tyre on, and there wasn't much change, but then I switched the front right tyre with the space saver and it was a lot quieter. Both right and left tyres are wearing in a similar way - but the direction of the tread means that the sharp edges are creating a "lip" that faces the front of the car on the top of the tyre - kind of like this /| /| /| all the way round the tyre. Both tyres contribute to the noise, but its mostly the right tyre.

What it essentially means is that my wheel bearings are fine (phew) and that I can either put up with the noise, or just pay for new tyres. I'll probably just be putting up with it for now. We swapped the rear & front tyres (leaving each tyre on the same side as it was on) and this has made a small but noticeable improvement, and will even out the wear as well.

For anyone interested, the tyres I have are Firenza's (www.sumotire.com). Wont be getting those again.

I've notice I have a dull 'bonk' noise coming from the front of my car over general bumps as well as soft 'creeking' noise from the steering rack when rotating the wheel at low speed (parking etc). Had the guy doing my exhaust have a look at the bushings and ball joints, can't pick anything. Possible shocks need replacing? There is a lot under these things so I may take it to a suspension shop to see if they can run a test on one of those machines that emulate road conditions.

What areas of the M35 fail in the front suspension so I can have a nose around when still up on the hoist tomorrow?

Cheers,

Rhys

Edited by StageaM35
wheel alignment time? hopefully it was done when you purchased new tyres.

I honestly have no idea what was done - tyres were new from compliance. they would have to have done an alignment then but i have no paperwork other than an invoice. finding out anything else required specifically asking about each thing and the compliance place really didn't like me calling for stuff like that.

Still, I'm pretty sure it had an alignment done at compliance...I think its just maybe gone a little out of whack since. Will get another one done when I get the chance.

my guess they didnt do it. compliance places (no offence to any on here) will do things as cheaply as possible. its called business.

maybe get it done again, $60 for a 4 wheel alignment is cheaper than a few tyres

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Yeah well per the video it took 15s for the stock unit to start up....even if I give it a few seconds discount for starting that is at least 12 sec before you get a reverse camera if you are trying to leave a park.  The android unit is way faster, but 2016 for the stock unit is a long time ago in consumer electronics
    • Yea that’s why I said ima test them with multimeter and see the reads.
    • Only at idle. Isn’t a problem when rev it seems.
    • @Haggerty This seems silly to ask, but are you confident in your ability to tune the Haltech?  
    • Next on the to-do list was an oil and filter change. Nothing exciting to add here except the oil filter is in a really stupid place (facing the engine mount/subframe/steering rack). GReddy do a relocation kit which puts it towards the gearbox, I would have preferred towards the front but there's obviously a lot more stuff there. Something I'll have to look at for the next service perhaps. First time using Valvoline oil, although I can't see it being any different to most other brands Nice... The oil filter location... At least the subframe wont rust any time soon I picked up a genuine fuel filter, this is part of the fuel pump assembly inside the fuel tank. Access can be found underneath the rear seat, you'll see this triangular cover Remove the 3x plastic 10mm nuts and lift the cover up, pushing the rubber grommet through The yellow fuel line clips push out in opposite directions, remove these completely. The two moulded fuel lines can now pull upwards to disconnect, along with the wire electrical plug. There's 8x 8mm bolts that secure the black retaining ring. The fuel pump assembly is now ready to lift out. Be mindful of the fuel hose on the side, the hose clamp on mine was catching the hose preventing it from lifting up The fuel pump/filter has an upper and lower section held on by 4 pressure clips. These did take a little bit of force, it sounded like the plastic tabs were going to break but they didn't (don't worry!) The lower section helps mount the fuel pump, there's a circular rubber gasket/grommet/seal thing on the bottom where the sock is. Undo the hose clip on the short fuel hose on the side to disconnect it from the 3 way distribution pipe to be able to lift the upper half away. Don't forget to unplug the fuel pump too! There's a few rubber O rings that will need transferring to the new filter housing, I show these in the video at the bottom of this write up. Reassembly is the reverse Here's a photo of the new filter installed, you'll be able to see where the tabs are more clearing against the yellow OEM plastic Once the assembly is re-installed, I turned the engine over a few times to help build up fuel pressure. I did panic when the car stopped turning over but I could hear the fuel pump making a noise. It eventually started and has been fine since. Found my 'lucky' coin underneath the rear seat too The Youtube video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLJ65pmQt44&t=6s
×
×
  • Create New...