In the past couple of days I noticed a sort of rubbing sound as I accelerate. The sound increases as I contiue to accelerate and continues after I ease off the accelerator. I have checked the wheel wells and I haven't found anything rubbing against the tires. All the gauges are reading as normal and the car is running just fine but for the rubbing sound. Any ideas about what may be causing the rubbing noise?

Rob F.

Rubbing noise is a bit too vague of a description as there are lots of things that can cause it. It depends on the sound and where it is coming from, is it high pitched or low, etc. The only thing that I can relate too is worn or grooved rotors. Other sources are; belts, wheel bearings, CV joint, AC compressor, alternator, hydraulic pump, water pump, differential, transmission, just to name a few. If you are coasting in neutral do you still have the same noise?

The rubbing sounds as if something is rubbing against a tire, but I checked all the wheel wells and couldn't find any obstructions. It's a low frequency sound which is just audable above the engine sound. I'll try coasting in neutral tomorrrow and check if I can still hear the rubbing sound. I know I have a tear in a CV boot which intend to have repaired soon, I just hope the CV joint isn't the source of the noise.

Rob R.

The rubbing noise continues as I glide along in neutral. With the rubbing noise presisting with the car in neutral, does this rule out the CV joint? If the weather is warmer this weekend I'll check the brake rotors.

Rob F.

If the boot is torn it is possible that the CV joint might be running somewhat dry and could be make noise but I can't speak from experience. Does the noise change if you are going into turn as is sometimes the case with worn wheel bearings? Also if you have an automatic check the differential fluid as it sometimes has a tendency to disappear or gets mixed with ATF.

I had my mechanic check out the rubbing noise and he is sure that the problem is a bad wheel bearing. I plan of having the torn CV boot repaired next week, so I'll have the bearing replaced at the same time.

Thanks for the help.

Rob F.