Whooshing Noise
 

My car has a whooshing noise coming from the pasenger side. I can only hear it when the windows are open. It varies with speed, not RPMs.

Funny thing is, I rode in my friend's Jetta a few weeks ago, and heard the exact same noise from the passenger side. Now a friend with a Passat is complaining of the noise as well--from the passenger side.

Any ideas?

I swear I was in the tech forum when I posted this.

What kind of car?

Same sound, different cars? Get a blow job to get the wax out of your ears! :)

An '86 951
A '00 Jetta
A '02 Passat

are they all boosted?

The Jetta is not. The Passat and 951 are.

Was there a ghey guy farting in the passenger seat at the time? :p

Interesting theory from another coworker: Tire tread noise.

And just to clarify, it is an airy noise that sounds like:

wishwishwishwishwishwishwishwish....

Chris,

If I understand the noise you have described, varying with speed, I'd look for uneven tire wear. Perhaps scalloping on the tread shoulders.

Les

bad wheelbearing....

And I would have thought that a bad wheel bearing would be a high-pitched noise?

Worn out weatherstripping?

Care to expand on this a little? How do you see bad weatherstripping as causing this kind of noise?

I'm not throwing anything out that has been suggested here. I'm just trying to gather a list of things to check.

Hell, I missed out on the windows open part. Never mind. With closed windows, bad door weatherstripping would make sense.

have you looked underneath for a stray Liberal hung-up on a wishbone or something?

I've already gotten rid of all of the dead weight on my car. :D

Can you capture some audio? My Casio camera makes really good audio clips.

I wanted to say Turbo whoosh but your whoosh is more of a wish so I am not sure now. I think the 1 car has turbo envy too.

no, on my vw's they would make a similar noise...they are just going bad, when they heat up they make the noise, cold they are fine. But it copuld be bad tires too, rotate them and see. the sound is more often WAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

I'll have to check out the wheel bearings.

Tires can't be rotated on the 951. Different sizes front and rear with "left" and "right" tires.

A failing wheel bearing usually sounds more like a moan.

3 cars have bad wheel bearings at the same time?

I jacked up the right side of my car, then the left.

I did a "wiggle" test on each of the four wheels. All were tight (no excess play). I don't think it is the wheel bearings.

I turned each of the four wheels by hand. The last time I did this, all of the wheel turned freely. The rears turn freely. The front left has constant resistance. The front right has intermittent resistance, corresponding to the same point while turning the wheel each time. I hear a very slow version of the "noise" when doing this.

I took out my battery powered impact wrench. I can't budge the lug nuts with the POS. (See my thread on wanting a decent air-powered impact wrench.) I tried a breaker bar, but the wheel just turns while off of the ground and I can't figure a way to "lock" it while jacked up.

My theory is that I have a warped right front rotor, and the left caliper is too close to the rotor.

Loosen the lug nuts with the car on the ground.

(we all know not to completely remove them, but just Loosen them, then jack the car up)

To re-install:
Tighten them as tight as you can while in the air, then set the wheel on the ground, and then torque to spec.

It appears all four calipers are sticking. Joy.

With a warped rotor, you would feel it in the brake pedal.