Whining Sound

I have an odd whining sound. Its pitch and volume vary with road speed (not engine speed). To give a sense of the volume, it's most audible at 70mph in 7th gear. This seems to be the sweet spot where the engine and exhaust noise is quiet enough and this whining noise is loud enough that the latter is most conspicuous.

It is most apparent with winter tires on. So I'd have thought it's just tire noise, but...

...it disappears when I lift off the throttle. Completely vanishes. Then it resumes with even a light application of the throttle. This happens in any gear, at any revs.

Could this be tire noise? Any other ideas?

It's loud enough to be mildly annoying and a bit concerning. I plan to bring it to the shop to let the techs hear it. They listened to a recording I took on my phone and said they didn't hear anything unusual, but I'm worried that this simply reflects the (poor) quality of the recording.

In the meantime, I wanted to survey the brain trust here. Any and all thoughts, suggestions and questions welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

Sources of road speed dependent noise can be hub bearings on the way out or binding park brake shoes. But these tend to be a chuffing rather than whining noise.

Winter tyres can whine but the whine tends to vary with the type of surface you’re driving on.

If there’s no whine under load but the whine appears as soon as you apply the throttle, I’m guessing that it could be a final drive whine - so something in the gearbox (final drive bearings? Diff?) or the driveshafts themselves.

 

Very helpful, thank you.

The noise may actually vary with road surface, but it's hard to tell. It's always present, so really a question of degree.

Diff or final drive bearings make sense as potential culprits, though does it strike you as odd that it would be more pronounced with the winter tires?

When you say it could be the driveshafts themselves, you mean the CVs?

 

Yes - CV joints are possible culprits.

 

Would those be constant when the car is at speed or could be affected by on and off throttle as described above?

 

wheel bearings?

 

Another possibility is the PCV if it isn’t working properly. I’m told it sort of makes a hissing sound. Not heard it myself. PCV is the blow by system for engine lubrication. Just a wild idea

 

Could be, that makes sense, thanks.

Helpful, thank you. Do you know if this vary with road speed, engine speed, or neither?

If you're not sure, I'll do a little research and mention it to the techs.

 

An update: I went for a ride with an experienced tech today. He didn't recognize the sound, and agreed that something is amiss. I'm going to leave the car with him while I'm away in a couple weeks and let him see what he can find. I will report back to document it in the thread (and to satisfy anyone's curiosity).

Thanks all for the helpful info, ideas and questions. Keep 'em coming!

 

I had the same problem as you. I use my car daily and have around 60k miles. No joke, take your car to the car wash. I mean the one with the roller, it worked for me.

 

Wow, hard to think what that could have fixed, but that's amazing.

For what it's worth, mine is washed regularly (albeit not at an automatic wash) and I've never noticed any change as a result.

My car is at the dealer. They don't have a definitive diagnosis, but have isolated the sound to the diff. There is agreement that there is an issue, so it's getting handled under warranty. FNA and the dealer have been great.

 

Let us know the end result. For those of us out of warranty if they tell you the cash-pay amount that would be interesting. I also wonder if it would be covered under the P15 warranty. Good luck, hope they get it fixed.

 

Thank you.

It is getting fixed under P15.

I'm sure the bill would be eye watering since they're taking the replace, don't repair approach. Whether or not the diagnose and repair approach would be more cost effective, it's hard to know.

Credit to Miller and to Ferrari for taking care of it. I recieved no push back at all - they did the right thing.

 

My experience is dealers always replace and never repair (I'm sure there are exceptions).

Once my wife's Infiniti J30t had a small exhaust leak in one of the headers. It was a $600 part. The dealer would only replace the entire dual exhaust system at a cost of $3200! I found a local mechanic who simply cut out the small section of pipe and replaced it. Total bill, $150.

 

Hi did you ever resolve this?

I have the exact same issue and it’s driving me nuts

 

I got the car back last week and I'm pleased to report that the sound is gone. A new gearbox may have been overkill, but it was effective.

 

Break it in and let the good times roll!