Hi guys,
Just gave my 04 Outback 3.0R its first highway trip on the weekend and found an annoying problem.
I had noticed around town a slight humming relative to speed but I considered it normal road noise, you really have to be listening for it (my Audi A8 was deafening so hearing anything but exhaust is new to me). But between 80-100km/h it gets louder and more defined and sounds almost like a small aircraft buzzing, but at 110km/h its gone completely...literally between 100 and 110 is just fades out to normal tire and wind noise. It seems to be coming from the front.
Prior to this, about a week after picking the car up, I found that both front tires were down to 15psi (!), and the rears at about 20, so I pumped them all up to 36. After I heard the noise I tried 32 as the door sticker says, but no difference either way.
I also have a slight knock in the front left when taking off, and what sounds like a CV joint clunking when turning, but its not constant and only does it twice when say reversing out of a park on heavy lock. I've driven around a carpark on full lock forward and in reverse to test the CVs and they are silent, its just the initial movement when parking etc. so I'm confident its not actually CV joints. Maybe just a bush or similar.
I'm not sure if they are related, but they could both be a bearing. From memory the front bearings are a similar size ball to the CV, so can give a similar noise. But cant seem to get any movement when wobbling the front wheels like I thought with a bearing.
Any ideas? The humming will have to go, its driving me mad. Thinking I might swap the tires around and see if it moves.
Trying to get some ideas before I go hitting up the dealer with it as he's 2 hours away from home.
Thanks in advance.