Odd sound coming from the rear wheel

This sound started happening recently after I had finished washing my slinger. I only noticed it because I rolled my slinger out of the garage without the engine on most of the time (to avoid fuming up the garage). I suspect it's lube related but for the life of me I can't figure out what it could be. I suspect wheel bearing friction.

It reminds me of the spinning of a bicycle wheel with gearing.

Any guesses from the gearheads here as to what it might be? I would prefer not to drive 90 miles to the dealership to have them try to troubleshoot it if it turns out to be just a quirk.

This is a 2019 SL model with 1700 miles.

Quote from Neosolidus

It is a little different than usual bearing sound but it could be it, how's the tension on your belt ?

Tension is fine. I did a thorough visual check of the belt path and had a neighbor look and listen. We both agreed that the sound was coming from the wheel area and not the belt housing area. Initially I thought it was some plastic piece rubbing against the belt threadings. Thankfully that is not the case.

My concern is if it's wheel bearing related could it be due to poor factory lubrication application? Could I be seeing premature bearing failure down the road. I plan on sending the video to the dealership to see what they think tomorrow.

Quote from SlingSC

After washing, most of the time your brake rotors will rust causing the brake pads to rub up against the rust making a clicking sound similar to your sound. May want to drive it a short distance to clean the rotors, then recheck. Just a thought.

unfortunately I have already done at least 20 miles since first noticing it so I don't think this is the issue.

Quote from Neosolidus

Here is a video from the old days, sounds a lot like yours and this was bearing failure

It was common in the early days for bearings to go bad due(allegedly) to the Axle nut loosening up and also the tension being too high.

Check your nuts and make sure they haven't moved

Thanks for that video. Although thankfully it doesn't sound as bad as your video, I was hearing almost the exact sound from the lesser sound in the background. So it looks like it's a bearing issue... wonderful. You would think Polaris would have figured this out by now (2019).

Quote from Bigdog

Send that video to your dealer/service department in an email....they might just send you a tow truck...

hehe I doubt they will do that but I do plan on emailing them tomorrow to see what they say. Having listened to the back carefully @5-10 mph along my residential street it is very hard to hear unless you have the engine off. I realize this can only get worse but I feel confident this is a lubrication issue with the bearings and not a bearing failure.

The more I listen to it the more it sounds like an actual bearing bead loose in the cavity rolling along as the wheel moves. Crazy right?

It's not like I have been doing a lot of hard driving. It's been the opposite really, lots of gentle rides with my dogs. An occasional rabbit start every few days for sure

Quote from airoutlaw

Wet the belt down and see if the noise disappears.

Looks to me like your belt is riding hard to the outside of the pulley.

Belt alignment?

Belt looks fine to me but I might try wetting the belt to see if that changes the noise.

**Update**

Well I am glad you mentioned wetting the belt. I decided to take a look at it before going to sleep tonight. Before wetting the belt I decided to move the SS ever so slightly in the garage and since it's super quiet right now I noticed that I could hear the noise almost instantly after just moving a few millimeters. That convinced me it wasn't bearing related because the noise was to fine for that.

Next I applied a little pressure on the belt with my finger and I could hear a faint noise of the rubber belt rubbing against the metal teeth of the gearing. I verified the belt alignment was fairly centered with maybe a little bias towards the right (looking forwards) so I knew it wasn't the belt rubbing against the edge of the gearing rail.

Finally I added some water to the belt (in the middle so as to avoid wetting the axle or any bearings near it) and after a full rotation or two, the noise was gone.

This makes more sense now since I first noticed the noise after doing a thorough washing of the upper back fender on top of the wheel (I did not directly spray the belt or wheel housing while washing to avoid washing away lubricants).

So my guess now is that it's not bearings at all but simply the rubber material of the belt rubbing against the metal of the axle and making what would basically called a continuous squeak.

Great tips from all and thank you!