I replaced the drivers side rear over the weekend and that wasn't the problem!! This is driving me nuts.

The noise seems to still be coming from the drivers side rear though? I don't know what else it could be other than the rear drive shaft or CV there? The boots were all intact and looked fine?

I wonder if it is the rear case? That would be a deal breaker and car up for sale.
Could a bent rim or tires make this loud of noise? It is predominant between 15 and 20.

 

I found a place to drive on the grass to take out the variable of "road noise". When I drove it on the grass, it was as quiet as can be.

It seems my issues is a combination of bent rims and uneven wear on the tires. Thats next.

 

Do you have a full size spare? If you did I would say swap it out for the spare! You might be surprised.

 

I do have a full size spare. All my rims are pretty tweeked. A few years back, I brought my wheels to a recondition shop. The first rim they checked out had a huge flat spot. They fixed it best they could and sanded it all down ready for paint. At the time, I told him to hold off and I figured I would spend the money on new wheels.
That rim he fixed (but is sanded down) is my spare. Basically, the only true/round wheel I have.

 

Today, I purchased 4 B6 S4 wheels in great condition. Like new with good tread on the tires (70%). $500 cash and very happy with them.
That resolved a lot of the wha, wha, wha, noise.

I still seem to have some noise (knobby type vibration) around 20mph??? It almost sounds like truck knobbys running on the road. But it's only starts at about 18mph and ends at 22mph.

I replaced driver side driveshaft, all 4 wheel bearings, both front tie-rod ends, and now all new wheels. What gives!

I have an appointment for an alignment on Monday as the last step in this long effort of changing out parts. If that doesn't resolve it, the only thing I can think of is:
1. one of the other CV's is bad?
2. transmission issues
3. throwout or pilot bearing going bad

What the hell else could it be? I've replaced just about everything.

 

Update:

I found the solution to my problem.

I've found the noise was associated to the tires. There was some cupping and uneven tire wear. This uneven ware hitting the surface of the road caused the humming/grinding, or knobby noise as I refer to it.
The other contributing factor was the tire pressure was well below what is should have been.
I recently purchased the rims with the tires on them and I didn't bother to check the pressure. WRONG! Having 20psi of pressure in high performance tires, will make a knobby or humming noise too.

It's nice to be quiet once again.

 

My buddy had a noisy wheel bearing, and did the work himself, but overtightened it... here's my blog post about it...

Noisy Wheel Bearing B5 Audi A4

 

It's good that you replaced both rear bearings because they fail within 3k miles of each other, typically.

 

Revive the 3 year old thread FTW!

 

"Fayette-nam" - unknown

.....appreciate your service.

cheers,
NC boy.