My wife's 2007 V50 is making a growling noise in the morning when she makes a right turn accelerating from a stop sign. She says it goes away after the day gets warmer.

I drove the car last night but it had been driven on her commute and it wasn't 20 F outside. It didn't make a noise.

This morning I took it out before anyone drove it, the morning was cold. Yep it makes a noise and I have no idea what it could be. I'm accustomed to a CV joint making a clank / clank / clank noise and I don't think I ever had a bad CV joint that healed itself during the daytime.

The growling kind of sounds like a tire rubbing against the wheel well, a very hard rub. I looked and there are no rub marks anyplace.

A strange caliper issue on the right wheel? It brakes straight and true.

Motor mount or trans mount? I need to get my wife behind the wheel while I do the check for a trans mount.

Any ideas?????

 

Update -

So I decided to have breakfast and then go up to my neighbor, a retired mechanic to get his opinion.

Drove up and by now the temp was about 50F. We jacked up the car, he got his pry bar and went about the suspension check, everything checked out ok. Put the wheel back on and went for a ride. I went to the same places that the car exhibited the noise just an hour before. No noise ... it was quiet. Went through several more 90 degree right turns from a stop and nothing.

It is as my wife has said, the car is quiet after a while.

 

My short list of the usual suspects: CV Joint, Wheel bearing, brake splash guard, power steering / rack brackets, torque rod/motor/trans mounts. Fast Check on the mounts is to have somebody "power brake" the car while in gear (ahem, stand to the side please) and see if revving or power braking can induce excessive movement of the engine. to check for the wheel bearing, you can jack the front side, then hand turn the wheels (car off/in neutral) to feel for any grinding - may help to hold the spring as the vibrations would show there as well. Compare left/right. Bearings can be tough to feel - some use a listener as well.

 

Yes I know about the "power brake" trick but I've been waiting for one of my care enthusiast friends to stop by. Sorry wife unit but I just don't trust ya to do it.

I've just never had mounts get better once the car is warmed up. Not saying that they can't but I've never had that happen. CV joint? Maybe if the grease gets warmed up in the boots/joints it could dampen the effect of a dying CV. Just not the clunk clunk I'm used to.

To me my guess is a bearing but again, in my experience if they are bad they keep grinding until they take their final spin of death.

The other day I narrowed down the description of the sound. If you have ever had a bunch of snow/ice gather in the fender area and then the tire hits it, that is the growling / grinding sound I hear.

 

if the sound changes with road speed, then you can focus on the rotating parts - CV joints, bearings, brake components, tires. Just had a bearing go on my 850 and I had a droning some describe as a "wub-wub-wub" that starts around 10 mph and gets louder and higher pitched up to about 35-40... Sometimes you can make the noise change turning left or right (loading and unloading the bearing - but that's not foolproof.) CV joints often expose themselves with clicking, particularly at slow speeds and full lock turns (like making a K turn or pulling out of your garage). Brakes are wheel specific and hand turning when the car is jacked up on that side can help. Note I have a floor jack so I can lift both front wheels rather quickly :-) time to call in that chit from one of your friends who goes around wearing a Nascar jump suit on weekends!

 

The problem is that it disappears after a while and once it is gone it is gone for the day.

A good guess would be a bearing but a bearing doesn't heal itself for the day. Bearings keep reminding you.

Tires are new and we had the same issue when the old tires were on the car.

Finding jack points on this car is difficult and jacking both wheels off the ground using the same jack point has me scratching my head. I have two floor jacks.

 

You can use the weld seam along the sides (ie where the rocker panel meets the floor pan) for my S40 the factory jack point is about 6 inches inside of the wheel arch on that seam. You can also jack from the heavy duty cross member behind the engine to jack the front together - some people use the spots where the chassis bushings and cross frames meet. No-nos are jacking via suspension parts like control arms or sway bars, flat panel sections, bumpers (not like your dad's Buick...)

Given you say the noise goes away with temperature, I'd still not rule out a bearing but I'd lean towards the CV joints. Also did you check transmission fluid levels/color? You didn't mention if this is AWD or FWD....

 

Well I didn't get over my lazy mood and the weather veered toward cold. I had an inde shop do the job. Took them about half an hour to replace. The part, labor and tax came to about $225.

Car is now quiet on right hand turns and heading up the freeway ramps. I read on the internet where people spent a lot of money (CV joints, struts, etc) before the mechanic found the real problem, a bad right side front motor mount.

The mechanic asked if I think this is the problem and I said yes...I am fairly certain. Couldn't be 100% sure but in this instance I was correct/