noise issue
 

Hi there. Just picked up a 96 Quattro a4 1.8 litre. Heaps happy with her except for this rather loud whiring(?) sound from either the tyres or the wheels. My brother recently had all the wheel bearings done so I'm pretty confident it's not that. Any suggestions?

Re: noise issue
 

If you suspect the tires I would either swap out the spare for the corner that you suspect or rotate one from the back to the front corner you suspect. I had an intermittent whirring sound when I first bought my car and thought it might be rotors. It ended up being 2 tires. When they were in sync it would be constant but if one got out of sync it would be nonrhythmic. Changed one wheel out with the spare and voila. Almost non existent. Ended up getting a new set of tires and no noise whatsoever. So much nicer to drive now. Wish I didn't wait 4 years trying to wear down those horrible Pirellis. Ended up getting Continental True Contact from Canadian Tire for a great deal at buy 3 get 1 free and a coupon for free mounting and balancing. Couldn't have asked for a better deal.

Doug