Whining Sound

I have an odd whining sound. Its pitch and volume vary with road speed (not engine speed). To give a sense of the volume, it's most audible at 70mph in 7th gear. This seems to be the sweet spot where the engine and exhaust noise is quiet enough and this whining noise is loud enough that the latter is most conspicuous.

It is most apparent with winter tires on. So I'd have thought it's just tire noise, but...

...it disappears when I lift off the throttle. Completely vanishes. Then it resumes with even a light application of the throttle. This happens in any gear, at any revs.

Could this be tire noise? Any other ideas?

It's loud enough to be mildly annoying and a bit concerning. I plan to bring it to the shop to let the techs hear it. They listened to a recording I took on my phone and said they didn't hear anything unusual, but I'm worried that this simply reflects the (poor) quality of the recording.

In the meantime, I wanted to survey the brain trust here. Any and all thoughts, suggestions and questions welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

Very helpful, thank you.

The noise may actually vary with road surface, but it's hard to tell. It's always present, so really a question of degree.

Diff or final drive bearings make sense as potential culprits, though does it strike you as odd that it would be more pronounced with the winter tires?

When you say it could be the driveshafts themselves, you mean the CVs?

 

Could be, that makes sense, thanks.

Helpful, thank you. Do you know if this vary with road speed, engine speed, or neither?

If you're not sure, I'll do a little research and mention it to the techs.

 

An update: I went for a ride with an experienced tech today. He didn't recognize the sound, and agreed that something is amiss. I'm going to leave the car with him while I'm away in a couple weeks and let him see what he can find. I will report back to document it in the thread (and to satisfy anyone's curiosity).

Thanks all for the helpful info, ideas and questions. Keep 'em coming!

 

Wow, hard to think what that could have fixed, but that's amazing.

For what it's worth, mine is washed regularly (albeit not at an automatic wash) and I've never noticed any change as a result.

My car is at the dealer. They don't have a definitive diagnosis, but have isolated the sound to the diff. There is agreement that there is an issue, so it's getting handled under warranty. FNA and the dealer have been great.

 

Thank you.

It is getting fixed under P15.

I'm sure the bill would be eye watering since they're taking the replace, don't repair approach. Whether or not the diagnose and repair approach would be more cost effective, it's hard to know.

Credit to Miller and to Ferrari for taking care of it. I recieved no push back at all - they did the right thing.