I just had my car shipped from pleasant Alabama to chilly Delaware, and while the car seems to have survived the journey OK I notice a fairly loud "tire" whine.
Is there anything from transporting, or the weather change, that anyone else has seen that might trigger this?
Car runs smooth etc., just loud, with no difference due to turning or hills ot indicate differential noise. Tire pressures are fine.

It the "whine" coming from the front or the rear? or just from the tires?

I'd check all the fluids, esp. the differential to make sure nothing leaked out.

__________________
Daily Driver: 02 E430 4MATIC
In the family: '03 E500 // '04 ML500 // 64 220SE

There's no visible diff leak, and I won't be able to check until my tools move up here with me.
It may just be the tires - I rotated & balanced them just beforehand, and the fronts are Ultrex, different from the Michelin's on the rear.
Maybe I just didn't notice the whine until I got up here, but I thought I'd check the voluminous hoard of knowledge here just in case.

Is the pavement different in you new area.

John Roncallo

Now that I've had more time to listen, I can describe the sound as like taht of a muti-propeller plane - not quite as loud of course.
It doesn't vary with pavement type or grooves.

The whine/drone is loudest at 45 mph.

What does the towing switch actually do, by the way?

That switches off/on an alarm that senses if the car is being tilted, like being towed away or being pulled up onto a car carrier. You need to switch it off when you jack up the car to change a tire.

__________________
2002 E320 4-Matic
2008 Subaru Outback
2009 Subaru Forester

Well, I didn't think my buzz-saw-bomber-plane-daytona500-loudest-at-45mph noise was tires, but I had to rule them out. The Delaware weather finally warmed up enough to allow me to do that in the Delmarva Power parking lot. (Remember I'm in the process of moving, and don't have my garage or tools).

There's nothing visibly wrong from underneath, but I did notice a shiny nut on the flex-disk, indicating the prior owner had some repair work done. Maybe the noise is driveshaft related, but I've never heard a roller bearing go like that, and a u-joint would probably make clunking noises.

I'll have Horst Fischer (shop was recommended somewhere, but it looks like his shop is behind his old house) look at it on Thursday and hopefully the suspense will be over.

That's really weird, since it makes the noise even in neutral.

Any ideas on the source? Is there a speedo gear on '99 W210's?

Thanks,
Tom

Possibly one of your tyres is out of shape. You can't always feel it, I had an Audi A4 with a bulge in the tred of a rear tyre, manifested itself with a 'blow across empty glass bottle' sound at 60mph.

To help sort out possible tire/road interaction noise, over-inflate them to about 55# (just for test purposes they won't blow up or anything just be easier to bruise) and run it on the same pavement where you notice the noise. If it is tires, the sound should be much different at the higher pressure. Br sure and deflate to correct pressures after testing

'Up Nawth', use of studded snow tires has seriously erroded the traffic lanes of much of the pavement and you can get lots of weird and unfamiliar tire/road noise. Since its been a real mild (no-snow) winter, lots of road wear may have occurred.

I finally put an end to this saga. Here's the rundown:

1. Shop 1, Mar '06: said it's the tranny. It would have had to be on the output shaft, since the noise was exclusively speed related.
2. Shop 2, Deltech transmission Apr06 or so: Actually did their homework and put chassis ears on the car while driving it around. They isolated it to the wheel bearings. They get a high rating for their honesty and good work. Unfortunately, they don't do rear wheel bearings.
3. Shop 3, MB Wilmington, Dec 06: Also diagnosed it as the wheel bearings, and volunteered to do it for about twice book rate. You have to admire them for being able to say that with a straight face.
4. Shop 4, Autobahn Automotive in Lakewood, New Jersey: they actually did the work. Dave, the owner, is on the forum here, and I'd rather give him my money than a local of unknown talent. He did the work in a day as promised and charged book rate. The roar is gone!

I don't have a clue what would make the bearings become loud like that. It never got worse in the year that I drove it, and was always the same on turns or going straight. It just sounded like the droone of a multi-engine propeller plane.
I have to think the damage was done by the shipment, but I can only guess how. When they ratchet the car down with the hold-down chains, it must have somehow put a bad load on the bearings, which caused some sort of damage during the 1000+ mile transport.