Grinding noise coming from N/S front wheel... Need Diagnosis

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:02 am

My E30 320i has a grinding noise coming from the drivers side front wheel when I go around corners. It only seems to happen when turning right, so I assume it must have something to do with either steering angle or weight transfer to the other wheel. I thought it might be the wheel bearing, but I jacked the car up and there was no discernible play in the wheel movement. Any ideas what it might be?

P.S. I'm living in New Zealand at the moment, and if anybody knows of any shops that sell E30 parts in this country, or ship cheaply to NZ, let me know.

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:31 am

It's probably the wheel bearing, when my front passenger side bearing went it only made a grinding sound when going around corners. It didn't show any other symptoms i.e growling at high speed, play in wheel ect that you might normally expect..

Jack it up and spin the wheel with a moderate push, a good bearing should only really turn the wheel once or twice. A bad one will allow it to turn much more freely like in this video.

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:37 am

I will go have a look and find out. Thanks for the help. Would the wheel bearing for a 325i fit my car, as I am looking at some ebay dealers in Australia who might have the parts, but they only list 318's and 325's as compatible, maybe due to the 320 not being available in their region.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/84-91-BMW-E3 ... 2785wt_978

Would this fit?

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:03 am

Skornogr4phy wrote:I will go have a look and find out. Thanks for the help. Would the wheel bearing for a 325i fit my car, as I am looking at some ebay dealers in Australia who might have the parts, but they only list 318's and 325's as compatible, maybe due to the 320 not being available in their region.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/84-91-BMW-E3 ... 2785wt_978

Would this fit?

Yes

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 6:40 am

I'm living in Hamilton at the moment, and will be moving back to the UK in March. Trying to get the car ready for when I need to sell it. A horrible grinding noise is usually a bit of a turn off to a prospective buyer ;)

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:57 am

Are you sure it's not something daft, like one of the plastic arch liners coming loose and rubbing on the wheel? There are two plastic parts inside the wheel arch and either one can cause noises on full lock.

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:25 am

Another possibility is that the disc backing plate is bent too close to the disc, and just touches when sideways loads are applied to the wheel.
All E30 wheel bearings are the same, give or take an ABS sensor ring, except M3.

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 11:31 am

Well the arch liner already rubs at full lock, but I don't see why it would rub when the weight is rolled to the other side, causing an increase in suspension height.

The disc issue might be different, as I did get the discs machined a few months ago. How would I go about checking / fixing that?

Post Mon Dec 17, 2012 11:47 am

Look for a bright spot on the backing plate,if present 'adjust' the backing plate with a Birmingham spanner and a block of wood.

Post Thu Dec 20, 2012 1:17 am

Bought a wheel bearing from http://www.sdeuropean.co.nz/, and will get a local garage in Hamilton to install it as I don't have any tools.