Is there an easy test to see if a wheel bearing has gone bad? I'm running Yoko AVS ES100s on stock 17s and I have a lot of pulsating road noise, especially at lower speeds. Of course at first I thought my wheels were just out of balance, but a rotate-and-balance service failed to end the noise. Likewise, replacing my warped stock front brake rotors with Brembo blanks (w/new pads) also failed to end the noise. The tires themselves have been a little noisier than the stock potenza's, but obviously that's a different kind of noise. So, I guess I'm just trying to find out what to look for. Bad tire?, bad wheel bearing?, worn suspension component? (the car has 56,000 mi.).

Any help would be greatly appreciated as it's sometimes all I can do to keep from going crazy and yanking the car into a ditch...

 

Bad bearings make a roaring noise. Usually the noise will go away with a slight turn of the wheel to the left/right while driving.

To check them your supposed to jack up the car and grab the wheel by the sides and push in and out to see if there is any play.

 

if your Yokos are anything like my last set of falkens, they get louder as they get worn down....

Also, I had a similar pulsating sound and it turned out to be a bent rim....you might want to get your rims checked...if one is slightly bent, it is still ok to drive on it, but it would make a kind of pulsating sound.

 

My 01 has 60K. Took it to get an alignment guy told me he couldn't gaurantee his work because my bearings were going out (there was a lot of play in the wheels). However it turned out to be that the axel nut was just loose. There is a small amount of space between the nut and the cotter pin. Not sure if this is your problem, but thought maybe it would help and save some $$$.