TR Wheel noise...help with diagnostic....

Dear Ferraristi,

Yes, you are correct. I was only remembering the price of the whole bill. The specific bearing replacement was 1400.00 + tax. The rest of the bill was for new parking brake shoes all round, new mounting hardware and new emergency brake cables.

In addition, I had the engine balanced at a cost of $500.00

So....all the work in the hub area was about 1800.00 + tax


Shamile

Freeze...Miami Vice !
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Just to throw a different option into the fire, when I put the 512TR rims onto my car I got a similar problem. Noise aaccelerated and eventually got so bad I stopped driving and had it towed. I was sure 100% that it was a wheel bearing.

I pulled off the wheel and was rotating the hub and looking in through the hole for the adjuster to release the handbrake so I could strip it down further. As I turned the hub and with a little LED torch in the hole, I saw some shiny metal surfaces. Like too shiny!

So I checked it out and one of the wheel studs was 1mm longer then the others. As everything heated up, that stud stretched slightly and came into contact with the handbrake mechanism creating the noise.

I machined each stud down 2mm and have had no further issues.

Worth checking.

Thing was I fitted the wheels in the UK and there was no problem. Then I had to remove them for the compliance and when fitted again, obviously the longer stud went into a different hole that may have been machined a poofteenth deeper which caused the issue.

I would check it out, specially if your wheels may have been off recently.

 

The chart is showing inner and outer for front wheel bearings on a Testarossa. This is a single double row bearing with one outer seal attached. I would be extremely cautious about using the Timkens. The outer shield is very important and should be identical and not a face seal.

John

 

Hold the forts cowboys before everyone thinks its a bearing.

Please answer the following :

is this a single nut tr ?

If its the single bolt, may i make a suggestion, make sure you check the splines in the wheels.....they maybe off or not connecting correctly. I had the same situation happen about 8 yrs ago....i kept hearing this humming noise, and couldnt figure it out....the mechanic said bearings....until a personal friend looked at it and said its not the bearings...some monkey had the splined and cap on backwards that caused the rubbing and the noise....sure enough, all the for wheels were the exact same...they were on backwards and caused problems....check it out. Have you had the wheels off recently ? refinished them maybe ? new tires added ? brake fluid flush ? if you have had the wheels off lately, this maybe your first step.

Ciao !

 

Adam,
I never came across a burned smell....you wont hear the noise by spinning the tires bu hand...but, if the splines are an issue, good odds it wont grip perfectly and you will have a loose rim...while driving. When you took the bolts off were some easier than the others ? They should not be stuck or caked on, and they shouldnt come off very easily either. Did all 4 come off with the same amount of pressue ? You may have a spline or nut issue, rather than a bearing issue.Rotate the nut (bolt) with the one in the front to see if you ahve a problem with the bolt (stripped) or the spline itself.

 

I'll throw in one more simple thing that can make a clinking noise, besides a loose center bolt. That's the most likely. However it is possible to have debris, sand, flakes of plating, etc rattling loose inside the center bolt. It can be loud enough to hear against a concrete barrier or treeline. Make sure there are no pellets of any kind inside the wheel bolts.

Hope for the simple solution.

 

To quote Big Red: ...some monkey had the splined and cap on backwards that caused the rubbing and the noise....sure enough, all the for wheels were the exact same...they were on backwards and caused problems...

I'm sorry Big Red....but I'm confused about this....can you clarify it. Were the actual splined hubs on wrong? By that I mean were the vehicles right side hubs mounted to the left side wheels, and visa versa?

Tip for all single-lug TR owners: The center lug bolts should always tighten towards the rear of the car. This means that the left side bolts tighten clockwise, and the right side bolts tighten counter-clockwise.

 

No, the bolts were on the correct sides,
Dont know how to actually explain it in the correct terms. The rims (in the cap) the pins, splines were in backwards...therefore when the nut was bolted (the single bolt) they didnt connect correctly...the bolt was on, and it tightened, but they didnt actually lock togehter....therefore when driving, you would hear this rubbing noise louder and louder...when we took one wheel off they noticed it was on backwards, they checked the other wheels and noticed the other 3 were the same, which was incorrect. When driving for long periods of time you would notice that the nut (bolt) would actually become loose

 

Thank You BIG RED for responding, I'm almost on the same page....but not quite....were the actual hubs installed onto the wheels backwards? If so this would mean that the tapered portion of the spline hub was towards the outside of the wheel instead of the inside?

To clarify to those who may be unfamiliar with the early single-bolt Testarossas, the splined hub actually bolted to the wheel, and then this assembly bolted to the car. If you look at an early TR wheel, you will see in the center portion (with the trim ring removed) a series of holes around the center of the wheel. The splined hub is kind of like an adaptor, that bolts to the backside of the wheel with 5 bolts and nuts. Then the wheel/hub are bolted to the car. The Hub has a cone shape on the inner side (towards the car) that mates up to the the actual tapered shaped hub of the car. The splines are to prevent unwanted rotation. So two things are going on when you mount the wheels, spline engagement, and proper hub taper seating. To do this right, you need to mount the wheels with the car in the air and tighted the bolt sufficiently to assure taper/cone contact. Once this is established....you can lower the car to the ground, and finish tightening the center bolt. All surfaces must be clean, and a film of high temp anti-sieze applied to all surfaces. If you only tighten the center bolt by hand, and then lower the car for final tightening....you may not get proper contact between the taper/cone which can result in catastrophic consequences. So always get the center bolt fairly tight while the car is in the air before doing the final torque to 325 ft.-lbs (verify there should be no wobble).

My current TR is a 5-lug car, but in my opinion with stock wheels, nothing looks better than the early single-bolt wheels!

 

I think thats what i was saying carguy The splines were in backwards and wont make correct contact with the hub.Therefore when driving, you get this humming noise.

Check it out Adam...this could be the problem instead of bearings....then check the rest of the wheels....but makes sure you go to someone that actually knows and has seen this before so they know the difference.