Noise from hub / stub axle / brake / bearing? Driving me nuts!

Mk2, wire wheels. Wilwood calipers.

All has been fine for years, then last year developed a noticeable ‘chuff chuff’ noise at sub 10 mph, changing to a bird like ‘cheep cheep’ noise as speed increased. Slight feeling through the steering wheel – put into garage for suspect wheel bearings. Garage detected possible slight play, but only marginal, so bearings replaced. No other issues found.

All fine for a while then the ‘chuff chuff – cheep cheep’ returned. Not being constant, all the hallmarks of a warped disc, but all fine – no matter swapped discs and pads – all fine for a spell, then it has returned. This scenario has played out over say, 3000 miles. Last time wheels were off, noticed the tyre from the noisy wheel was wearing slightly unevenly on the inner edge. Alignment checked only a few months back – from memory before the noise started and all good. Is it possible the spindle / stub axle has been bent which might give similar characteristics to a warped disc and camber off?

Thoughts welcome.

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Had a similar head scratcher on a motorcycle. Loose spokes.

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Very left field - I like it. Next I can be bothered I’ll put the spare on and try it, thank you.

Check the bearings spinning on the stub axel…you will easily see wear marks on the stub axel if the inner bearing isnt a tight fit …Steve

I recently went through an exhaustive fault finding exercise on my 4wd which developed a similar sound in the front end.

First is change tyre

It may be worth having laser alignment with printout which shows cater, camber, toe

As Steve said, the stub axle can become worn, which can at least be inspected by removing a few parts.

I will say that the resolution of my 4wd issue required me to fit an entire font diff/axle housing, after exhaustively substituting parts, I could still find nothing wrong

When that fixed it, I fully dismantled and inspected the diff internals ( it was grating at the end), but to my great surprise, all internal parts are good.

The only conclusion I can investigate further is the axle housing C casting became bent, which is a known fault, and we have the most awful potholes

Probably not your issue but my 3.8S does make a VERY subtle chirping noise from the front wheels from time to time. A touch of the brake pedal eliminates it. Probably the brake pad just slightly touching the disc.

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I had the same kind of noise , was the brake pads !

Thanks for all comments. Decided to try swapping the front wheels to see identify / eliminate worn splines (in hub or wheel). Swapped over the wheels yesterday, and only a mile or so driven and noise has gone - longer drive today will confirm. Fingers crossed.

Weird – 20 miles today after swapping front wheels over, a trip including a tour of the echo chamber of an enclosed supermarket car park – not a peep. Unless a magician has been at it, swapping the wheels has eliminated the noise. My amateur guess is combined wear on splines & hub on drivers side now mitigated by having worn drivers side wheel on passenger side and inverse vice versa. Fingers crossed – a longer trip this weekend will confirm perhaps or otherwise.

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