BMW Mini Wheel bearing-Our customer thought it was just tyre noise to start with?

BMW Mini Wheel bearing

So, this was one of those customers that are not your customer if you get what I mean. Let me explain? The owner of this BMW Mini wheel bearing problem had taken the car with its noise problem to two other garages, before finally bringing his car into us.

The first garage put the problem down to the tyres. They were Mini run-flat tyres, 205/45R17 and these tyres were fitted to the original alloy wheels. I personally think that the early Minis were noisy to drive. I thought it was the run-flat tyres, due to the fact that they are very stiff and hard tyres. These tyres have

strengthened sidewalls and are a different tread compound to give them the extra strength, for if a puncture occurs and the tyres are then driven to safety at 50 MPH.

 Wheel bearings

The guy paid them for an hours labour and then moved to the second garage. They told him more or less the same. The tyres are noisy due to construction and noisy roads. The guy was still not happy and so came to us for our advice.

Pellon Auto centre, Halifax, Yorkshire, UK, have a large number of customers that own BMW Minis. We have come across customers with noise complaints before. We did, however, check the tyres and the tyre pressures and they were fine. The next step was the wheel bearings. This has been a common problem for us in the past.

Just as we suspected one BMW Mini Wheel bearing was found to have a little play in it. It did not look to be much, but with the weight of the car and the wheel turning then the noise would have been replicated many times.

We told the relieved customer and carried out the work on the wheel bearings. The outcome was a much quieter BMW Mini and a happy customer.