# Need help diagnosing "chugging" noise at rear of 2007 Jetta sedan



## scottyD83 (Oct 19, 2007)

I need some help diagnosing some noise I'm getting at the rear end of my 2007 Jetta 2.5 sedan.

I hit a curb back in February with the driver's rear wheel while fishtailing around a curve and the repair shop said I needed a new rim and a new wheel bearing and they replaced both of those parts.

Lately though I've been noticing a kind of "chugging" or "wobbling" sound coming from the rear of the car at lower speeds (less than 30 mph). It seems to be at the same frequency as the wheel rotation. The noise occurs whether I'm on or off the throttle and if I'm in a straight line or turning. The noise doesn't seem to occur above 30mph, or it becomes much less noticable and I can't hear it.

Right after I hit the curb and before I took it to the repair shop, I had the rear of the car up on jack stands and I was spinning the driver's rear wheel and noticed some lateral runout. I took the wheel off and could see that the clearance between brake pad and rotor would increase and decrease as I spun the brake rotor around. After the repair shop replaced the rim and wheel bearing, I still noticed a very small amount of runout, but much less than what it was before. I thought this was acceptable since it was only a very small amount.

I'm wondering if the brake rotor is bent slightly and could be contributing to the noise I'm hearing and to that remaining amount of lateral runout. Could a rotor suffer some damage from hitting the curb? That's the only other part on that corner of the car left to replace since the rear half of the front wheel drive Jetta is pretty basic.

I know I could go and replace the rotors and see if that fixed it, but I thought I'd ask first and see if you all had any advice and possibly save some money.

Thanks in advance,
ScottyD83


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## DC Jetta Guy (Jul 31, 2004)

Ok, I'm not exactly certain how the MKV rear ends are setup but, if applicable, maybe you have a slightly bent stub axle on that side?


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## scottyD83 (Oct 19, 2007)

DC Jetta Guy said:


> Ok, I'm not exactly certain how the MKV rear ends are setup but, if applicable, maybe you have a slightly bent stub axle on that side?


*DC Jetta Guy*, not sure what you mean by stub axle - is it the hub where the rotor mounts to? I'm not sure if the hub and bearing are within the same part and if they were replaced together, or just the bearing.


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## DC Jetta Guy (Jul 31, 2004)

The stub axle is literally a very short axle section that goes through the rear wheel bearings. The stub axle would push through the rear wheel bearings from the inside and the outer hub section would bolt onto it. If either the outer hub section or the inner stub axle section is slightly bent from hitting the curb, that would explain the wheel and/or rotor wobbling slightly. Replacing the bearings would make it a little bit better but if either the stub or hub are bent it would still wobble. Again, I am not certain of how the MKVs are setup but if the car is fwd it would most likely have a stub axle setup in the rear. Hope that helps.:thumbup:


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## scottyD83 (Oct 19, 2007)

DC Jetta Guy said:


> The stub axle is literally a very short axle section that goes through the rear wheel bearings. The stub axle would push through the rear wheel bearings from the inside and the outer hub section would bolt onto it. If either the outer hub section or the inner stub axle section is slightly bent from hitting the curb, that would explain the wheel and/or rotor wobbling slightly. Replacing the bearings would make it a little bit better but if either the stub or hub are bent it would still wobble. Again, I am not certain of how the MKVs are setup but if the car is fwd it would most likely have a stub axle setup in the rear. Hope that helps.:thumbup:


Hey thanks man. I'll have to get the wheels off and see what I can find in there. Hopefully something is obviously bent or not right and will be simple to diagnose the problem from there.

Thanks again.


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## DC Jetta Guy (Jul 31, 2004)

Cool deal. Good luck, man. :beer:


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## Anony00GT (Mar 6, 2002)

Rotate the tires front-to-back before going nuts. Sounds like this could be as simple as a bad tire. I'm assuming they replaced the rim but not the tire when they did the repair.

If the problem was with brake rotor runout, there's a very good chance you'd feel it while on the brake pedal, or at least notice a difference between being on and off the brakes.


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