Noise From Rear of 599

wheel bearing?

 

Does it correlate to engine RPMs or road speed?

 

Tire tread separation or internal tire issue?

 

This was my first thought.

If you are correctly describing the sound as a "thump" then I would definitely give the tires a thorough inspection for bulges, separation or other abnormalities.

 

Try swapping the tires and see if anything changes.

 

I had a rear shock mount fail @ 9000 miles on my 550. It sounded like a low frequency clunk when driving over pot holes and uneven pavement. Unfortunately my mechanic had to break down the rear suspension until he found it and of course the shock mount was the very last piece to come off. Once it was off he immediately felt the play in the mount which was causing the noise. All my Alfa's had sway bar bushings which failed over time causing a similar noise.

 

Swap them side to side and see if the noise disappears. Are the tires directional?

 

Sounds like a wheel bearing issue..

 

Wheel bearing...

 

I've found bad wheel bearings in an IRS car, by raising the car, and rocking the wheel from side to side and top to bottom to check for slop in the bearing. Unfortunately this test will usually only turn up a bad bearing when it's in the later stages of failing.

On another car, in the early stage of failure, the bearing only made the "whump, whump, whump" noise out on the road when that wheel was heavily loaded, and the noise dissipated when the car was turned the other way. It can be tough to hear unless there are tall guard rails on both sides, or you're in a tunnel. This bearing didn't show up with the wheel rocking test, but since I was familiar with the noise already from the previous car, it was relatively easy to diagnose.

There are some Youtube videos of cars with bad rear bearings, which might be useful for you to listen to and compare with your noise. Try searching on "rear wheel bearing noise".

When you said the "...tires were spun", did you mean unloaded, up on the lift, or did you actually pull them off the car and put them on a balancing machine that loads the tire, like the Hunter GSP family? If you have a tire or wheel that has a defect, these machines will find it. Sometimes a tire will have a belt separate internally, and you can't detect it visually from the exterior, but a machine such as the Hunter will find it. Note: not every shop has a wheel balancing machine that will "load" the tire - this is a fairly recent development in that industry, so if you do this, you need to ensure the shop is equipped with a "Road Force" balancing machine such as the Hunter GSP9700, or similar. If you go to Hunter's website, they have a search tool that will locate a GSP9700 equipped shop near your Zip Code.

 

Get a set of Chassis Ears. Clip them on to some appropriate places, it won't take long to isolate the source of the noise.

This setup told me which ball joint was making the "click" on a 430 Scuderia.
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About $300.

 

If now you know what side its on, then swap the front two tires and retest to see if it changes sides. If clean then must be the rear tire but swap back the front then do the rear to make sure. Of course, if it moves on the first swap then you've found the bad tire.

Why would ball joints go bad on a 599? I'm assuming you only have 10-20K miles. I'm new to Ferrari's so sorry for the rudimentary question. Never seen a ball joint go bad from normal wear in a modern car with less than twice that mileage. Are these cars that delicate? Thanks.

 

are the tires original? what are the date codes? if they're original, they probably need to be replaced anyway; and while 599 tires aren't cheap, that might be the cheapest solution towards troubleshooting, particularly if they are out of date anyway.

 

Don't be too quick to compare Ferraris with "modern cars". 360s and 430s can require ball joints before 10K miles. The 599 uses the same parts.

I'm not suggesting that this is the problem with this car.
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2NA - Speechless. Ball joints should last 100K miles and wheel bearings the life of the vehicle if not sealed (repackable). Please tell me that the F12 does not use the same parts. I coughed up the better part of half a million for it and never thought such repair was required in this day and age.

 

Too early to know what quirks the F12 will have. It's just part of the Ferrari experience.

The ball joints on the 360/430/612/599 are a simple fix but not cheap. In my experience it looks like the factory never lubricated them.

I'll tell you what I tell all my new clients: "don't ever confuse an Italian car with transportation".