Loud drone/hum front end Mini.

[Insomniator]

04 Mini S -- around 40mph and up I start to hear a loud honing/humming/droning sound in the front end. It kind of sounds like the passenger side tire... maybe bearings... but I don't know, it could easily be coming from right behind the dash. It gets louder with speed (LOUD at 80 mph) and changes tone but does not go away if I let off the gas at speed.

If I just rev the car up high sitting in neutral the engine sounds fine.

Could it be something with like... the driveshaft?

 

[repoman0]

Sounds like it could be a wheel bearing going bad. Can you pin it to one side? My front passenger side wheel bearing is going too on my 04 BMW .. not that loud yet but similar in character to your description.

Normally I'd chalk this up to "classic BMW/Mini where everything fails" but wheel bearings go occasionally on every make.

 

[RayH]

If you only hear it while the car is moving it's most likely wheel bearings. Though you'll want to confirm that it's not the supercharger belt tensioner or bearing in the supercharger by listening to the engine with the car parked and the hood open with someone else revving the engine.

 

[FeuerFrei]

over-inflated tire(s) ?