It kind of has a metallic sound to it, which makes me think it might be the brakes. It gets faster as the car accelerates - again, one "shh" sound with every wheel spin - and slower as the car decelerates. Eventually, as you get to a decent speed (25 mph) I can't hear it anymore. Probably because of the road and general engine noise drowning it out.

The sound is very faint "shh, shh, shh". I just replaced my brakes in the spring, I don't understand what the reason behind this is. Again, not positive it is the brakes, but that just seems like the most logical reason. I was told a failing wheel bearing would be a much different sound.

Any help I'd greatly appreciate. This is a question for my DD, a '94 bmw 318is.

 

sounds like a wheel bearing. Does it make more of a "woot, woot, wooot wooot"?

 

maybe he heat warped a rotor, did you track it lately?

 

I'm gonna say no. Someone else told me a bearing may sound like a "wub wub wub" sound. I'm not getting that either.

 

Nope. I haven't tracked it lately. Matter of fact, I just started driving it again after doing some maintenance work to it that took a couple weeks.


i think I may have noticed a faint hesitation as the car was rolling when I was doing some test to try to diagnose the issue. Again, the shh shh shh sound is very faint, and so is the hesitation.

 

hisses, pisses, and shhhs don't tell you jack...tear into it and find out.

look for wheel bearing test in some of my posts...I've written it out like 5x. It is the best way I've come up with to positively ID a bad bearing.

brakes are likely

 

well, if you coat the rotors in chalk or something and push the car a couple feet letting it stop without hitting the brakes (let it roll back into a curb) you can look for any rotor area wiped clean. I guess you can jack the front and just spin the wheel but that isn't as accurate a representation.

 

Bent dust shield thats now rubbing against the back side of the rotor, perhaps?

 

omg...I think that may actually be a possibility. Either the pads are grazing the rotor ever so slightly, or it's the rotor against the dust shield. That's how faint/tinny the sound it. Not a grind or a squeak.

I really hope it is that easy of a fix. Good thinking Spoils, good thinking. *crosses fingers*

 

let us know....for the good of all!

 

Of course I will.

I'll try to get to it tomorrow, but I just sprained my ankle yesterday, so I don't know how much jacking up the car I'll feel like doing. Probably still will try it tho.

Then again, do the Zs even have dust shields behind the rotors?

 

Ice it and get out there! J~K well not about the ice...its good say no more than 30mins at a time... elevate....
yes

 

So I adjusted the dust shield, drove the car yesterday and today, and so far so good. We've had wet roads up here and that does create some extra road noise that might be making it hard for me to hear the faint sound, but I'm pretty confident it's gone.

Thanks again SpoilsofWar!

 

No problem.

The reason I suggested it, was because when I first installed my AP BBK, I had the same issue. Had to cut the dust shields off.