Almost replaced good wheel bearing. I drove with whistling noise from front left wheel for 2 weeks. I tough it was wheel bearing.
I drove trough rain last night and noise is gone. I had plan to replace wheel bearing today. When is time to replace wheel bearing. Only noise evidently cant be indicator.

 

Jack the car up and pull on the wheel, if there is some play side to side then the bearing is going out. I have replaced mine twice and it was always the metal screeching noise that I found, even when I checked for play there wasn't any there but when they run out of grease they will screech and start to ruin. Wear sensors on the brakes will make the screeching sound as well.

 

Last summer our chevy van (FWD) developed a squeak that sounded like steel on wet rubber. It was audible with ANY wheel speed. About the time the rainy season began, the noise went away. A month ago the noise started again.
I began spraing every rotating part on the front driver side with WD40 in order to diagnose. What I found was that the inner wheel bearing seal was dry and squeeking. I spayed it liberally with tri-lube (PTFE) and will do it again next time it starts squeaking.

 

For me no more wheel bearing replacement till excessive movement of wheel in 12-6 position.

 

That was my issue with the high pitched wine after driving on the highway.
Finally found it when I rebooted my CV joints.

It's actually easy to fix, just take the castle nut off, push the drive shaft back and there's just enough room on the backside to get some grease in there.

 

Well i think its too late for mine. I started hearing this growl sound or noise at every speed even at slow speeds or creeping. I jacked the car up on pass side front wheel and there is alot of play when i grabbed it but the bearing appears fully greased on both front wheels. But also i found that passenger side axle nut was loose as well as driver side. So the passenger side is much too loose and prob the source of the bad bearing because it screaming now at all speeds.

 

To add to this my old thread. It was wheel bearing after all. In may start to make noise again and I replaced in middle of summer. Just bring steering knuckle from U-pull. So in my case I drove car like 6 moths after first noise.

 

I used a bearing/seal driver to drive mine out and in. Piece of cake.