I bet that howl is a wheel bearing on right side. If you also felt the howl in the steering wheel, I'd bet right front. When I first watched your videos I thought that noise may have been my exhaust, but it isn't as it doesn't shift at the right time and it is dependent on your vehicle speed.

The howl gets worse on left hand turns and better on right hand turns:


If it is not a wheel bearing, my next suspect would be a bearing in the drive shaft, diff, or maybe a CV joint. However, I'm pretty sure it's a wheel bearing because of the left-right dependency. The thrust loads from the tire loading will make a bad bearing sound louder. If the car growls while turning left, check the right side wheel bearings. If the car growls while turning right, check the left side wheel bearings.

I've got the same sort of noise in the M3, only quieter. Getting the tools and technique together to attack it this weekend.

-Mike

 

Thanks, Mike! I'm putting it together now.... I first noticed noise at TWS beginning of Jan, but in right hand turns, esp turn 10. During NASA weekend 2 weeks later left front wheel bearing started making noise during race and I knew by sound and feel what it was. We replaced that one.

Noise was definitely worse Sunday, but this time other direction and turns, which threw me off. It sounds different in car vs on video, and I thought at first it was your exhaust as well.

Time to replace right side. They were only 5 months old, but I've done a few heavy rain sessions since.

 

May want to have that surly one check his install procedure - it is fairly easy to damage bearings on install. It's also possible the replacement bearings were bad (Chinese crap). Go with reputable name brand ones.

-Mike

 

I have a press and all the jigs to do bearings. No problems with install procedure. The right front was fine when inspected at MSRH. Left front was toast and replaced. No water intrusion on right front. Rears don't wear out fast but were the ones on the car when we got it.

 

I've had bearings that went bad that didn't have any slop, but made noise, so even an inspection wouldn't rule anything out.

I've also had them so bad that they made the brake caliper squeak because the runout at the edge of the rotor was nearly 1/16" even though the rotor was flat. No slop either in this case.

I'm really hoping I don't need a press for the one I'm about to do. The rears on an E36 M3 can be a bear due to the factory thread lock on the splined half-shaft, but they have been done before, so here is hoping.



-Mike

 

You can blame it on my crazy azz driving. I don't care as long as my car keeps running. I don't want to be known as "Car Killer" anymore. I want to be known as "Miata Whisperer." I hear things....

 

You have not paid your chief mechanic lately, so I am not sure whether your car can be ready for COTA or not.

 

That's kind of personal for the internet, isn't it?

 

Paraphrasing Andy Lally, to truly hone your skills, you have to not care about the car. As mere mortals without a professional racing budget that is a bit unrealistic, but if you care too much about the car it will hold you back. Indeed, it is the reason SM is so popular.

That said, listening skills are key and it pays dividends to notice when your car's noise changes. Of course, how you can do that in a pack of 20 angry Spec Miatas is a mystery to me.

Oh, if you haven't had any offs nor run over any curbs, you aren't the reason new bearings crapped out .

-Mike

 

Yes. I may get back in the GT3, but doubt I'd ever drive it more than 8/10 unless I win the lottery. I know how hard I have to work for those repairs....

Now that I've been driving Miata I'll probably be more careful in the M3 in part because I'm aware there is more $ at stake...and it doesn't have the roll cage yet...and it is my daily driver.

But what I've found is although I'm not as worried financially about Miata repairs I'm still going to have to deal w/ the inconvenience of getting it to and from repair shop, possibly missing the next event or one after, and losing out on rest of event I'm already at. Plus irritating my pit crew.

I am more conservative first 1-2 sessions of an event at least. If I can make at least 50% of event sessions I'm not too bummed.

Offs or curbs? One drive off in last 3 events...but yeah...driving around the apex of 14 is kind of an annoyance.

 

As much as I loved driving my Jag on the track, it will never go beyond the paddock again. Car is just too irreplaceable to risk and then there is the question of safety equipment.

Damaging the track car does suck. My little escapade two weeks ago may likely ruin a coaching opportunity as time is tight to get it patched up.

My first session is usually pretty sedate. Goal is to get the car and driver warmed up at to check if the car is okay. Sessions two and three on Saturday are historically my best chance for a new PB. Sessions one and two on Sunday have decent chances of being memorable. The other sessions are seat time at best, screw ups at worst.

Anyway, I took the TraqMate data you sent me and did an overlay using RaceRender on one of your videos. I'll comment more later about what I saw in your TraqMate config.


-Mike

 

Ok, so on the TraqMate config, all of your analogs were disabled. Thus, even though you have wiring to A0, A1, and A2, there is no data. In addition to connecting the wires, you have to configure the TM display unit. You do this by plugging it into your PC and running the TM software. Where you normally connect to download session data, there are tabs. One of those tabs is for configuration. You need to both enable the analog channel and calibrate it.

To use RaceRender, you export the data to CSV (look at the contents of the zip file I sent you) and that becomes the source data. You also select a video file, and that is the file that is overlayed with the data.

I managed to sync the partial clip because I had my full data and video and could figure out which laps where on your short clip. It is much easier to sync the full clip by using the point where the car starts moving. I was able to use your shifts to sync it. It is better to overlay the entire clip with data and then cut it down to interesting segments if you don't want the full video.

Have patience. When I first started with this stuff it had a steep learning curve. With a bit of practice it becomes *much* easier. Once you have a project in RaceRender set up the way you like, you can create a template and the setup process takes just minutes. The time for the encoding process depends on how good your laptop/desktop is. With my 5GHz Sandy Bridge rig, a 30 minute video takes about 30 minutes to encode. I wouldn't even want to try it on the track Thinkpad unless the clip was very short or I could do it overnight.

You can also use TraqStudio to watch overlayed video. TraqStudio is quick and dirty as you can be watching data overlayed video in minutes after coming off the track. It will even to a video theoretical best lap quickly. Other than in bright sunlight, my cheap Thinkpad handles this at the track with ease. Racerender is more for after weekend pretty videos.

If you haven't seen them, a couple of threads I started over in the data subforum are useful:

Cheap Thinkpads
Low Cost Video Tools

-Mike

 

Awesome, Mike, thanks!

CSV= comma separated values. ;-)

I downloaded and opened RaceRender and thought "clueless" and closed it. I follow what you are saying and hope I'll be able to do it - I'll put it down for a this weekend project.

It will be nice to have the overlays again - even if it is not as sophisticated as the AiM w/ SmartyCam. At least I have audio.... ;-)

 

So, sort of like this?

-Mike

 

Lol yes. At MSRH CW coming out of bus stop you don't lose too much time driving straight through the grass vs driving all the way around the sweeper. ;-). Saves you from having to get all technical.