2003 STR, 98K miles.

Symptom: as I drive from ~40-70 mph I notice a good amount of road noise/ hum while I'm cruising in a straight line, then if I turn the wheel slightly (like a lane change) I notice the sound goes away. Sometimes the sound goes away if I go over a subtle hill or elevation change (up then down) in the road.

So, I figure it's not a transmission or engine sound since it seems it would occur independent of road conditions, turning, going straight... Maybe a wheel/ hub bearing?? Or, the tires on these STRs are fairly wide and could simply be a consequence of wide tires?? I haven't driving all that much on wide tires like the STR has so I don't have a basis for noise comparison.

Anyone experience this noise and find a fix or have advice on something to check?

 

See what others say but I reckon you're onto something and mine's not like that.

Sorry I can't help more at the moment.

 

I had a similar noise on my 06 str....mostly noticed at slower speeds....drove me crazy....all bearings good and trans good...finally found the right rear brakes worn funny ...the pad next to the piston piston completely worn out.....the other side at 70 per cent....suspected sticky caliper, so i went for a ride and sure enough, that rotor was pretty hot and the other way cooler....replaced caliper and rotors and pads .....no more noise....these cars are so strong they power through a lot of borderline troubles.....hard to hear things sometimes with the way the noise insulation is on them....took me a little while to get used to the tire noise also and be able to discern it from other car noises ....there is a thread titled....what is your jaguar trying to tell you....noise related.....might be a sticky....very good info.....covers all noises you can imagine

 

Is this something that just started of has just been noticed?

We STR owners don't really have a simple way to rotate our tires. When you get a chance..check your front tires for the chipping effect a lack of rotations can create...Check both the inside and outside shoulders in this way. Rub your hand over the tread on the inner most and outer most sections of the tire in both directions..if it's smooth one way and your hand catches and drags as you move it..your tires may be shot. I'm a little old school so I don't favor swapping radials from side to side..YMMV.

If the tires are good to go. Get the car on a lift and check for ANY wobble in the front wheel bearings.

 

Here is the title of the noise thread i i mentioned....

Troubleshooting Noises (Is Your Jaguar Trying to Tell You Something?)...sorry for the big word size....copy and pasted

 

Could this be from variations in the pavement? On my local rutfest, I mean Interstate, the pavement has some nasty wear patterns. At the bottom of these ruts, the surface is quite rough and this causes a lot of noise with wide tires. If I purposely ride a little off-center in my lane, so as to stay out of the ruts, the ride is much quieter. Perhaps that is what you're experiencing when you mention the noise drops when turning the wheel slightly.

 

its either tires, a wheel hub bearing, a rear wheel bearing, a bad cv joint.dragging brake....

i would check everything to see if theres any looseness or noise or roughness. try and narrow it down to the front or back then side to side.

 

Catfan01, since we've had this in the family since 2005, I've owned/ driven since 2018, it seems like something I would notice often since 2005. I recall my mother had the wheels replaced, or alignment done, I can't remember (while ago), the noise went away but then it came back. Hazy, so this is almost useless info to share, but the point is it's not something that has suddenly happened.

kr98644, I find this still happens on residential roads, etc., and I noticed it was happening below 30 mph on my residential road yesterday.

It appears from a general consensus it may be wheel wear, wheel/ hub bearings, brake dragging... I will be removing the wheels and checking the front and rear suspension and wheel wear asap and let you all know what I find. Thanks!

 

Rain finally let up today. So, looking at the front wheel wear patterns they are showing under inflation wear (edge wear), and the driver side front has a little positive toe in wear (feathered wear on the outermost edge of the tire). Odd, since I fill the tires to the door panel recommended values...and these are stock wheels to the car (STR). I haven't looked at the toe adjustment but does anyone know off the top of their head if the toe is independently adjustable for each front wheel? I suspect so if it's a rack and pinion connected to tie rods...

 

Toe will be adjustable via the tie rods. The description of the problem sounds a bit like wheel bearings. Modern bearing rarely show play these days until they are really bad but do get noisy. At 98k miles, there could be many components that are no longer as tight as they should be. You should check the suspension and the alignment. With a little luck, only the alignment is out but unfortunately noises suggest otherwise

 

Update:
So I rotated the front two wheels with each other. In the process I tried rattling the wheels up and down to see if the hub bearings were loose, which seemed pretty tight - no noticable play. I learned the trick of using a long pry bar under the wheels and lifting quickly to see if you can hear the bearing rattle or something loose in the suspension. Nothing seemed loose. Spinning the wheels when elevated didn't make any grinding noise, etc.

I increased the tire pressures from 28 psi front to 32 psi front, and 32 psi back to 34 psi back. Recall I was seeing tire edge wear indicating too low of pressures, especially in the front. Increasing pressures seemed to make the drive smoother.

The noise is still there and can disappear when I turn while moving at normal speed or go over elevation changes, but the noise volume may have decreased, hard to tell. Recall I saw toe in wear on the front wheels, which I have not changed yet, so maybe that is causing the noise and when I turn the toe isn't really a factor so much when the wheels aren't rolling straight forward...??

I have not rotated the back wheels yet or checked the back suspension for play yet.

 

i had a bad hum when go around right hand curves. It was a bad rear wheel bearing on the rear drivers side (left)

 

Aarcuda, were you able to easily tell the hub bearing was bad when you lifted the back end or was it too subtle to notice it was obviously bad? How did you test it, rock the wheel when it was elevated, spin the wheel, etc?

 

actually no! I swore it was the passenger side rear. Iremoved and replaced it and it didnt seem bad. So when I got to the drivers side and I started pressing it out, the bearing came out in pices and I could see it was damaged from before.

I swore it was the passenger side too! but it wasnt! All good now