Please bare with me, this is kind of a long story. So I'm off at college 130 miles from home during the semester and it makes it a little difficult to get my car worked on if I ever have a problem. Up until now, I haven't had anything go wrong besides a MAF, which I replaced myself.

February: After the 2hr drive up to school, I pulled up to a stop sign and I noticed somewhat of a screeching/squealing noise coming from the right front wheel area. The noise was consistent with my speed, i.e. the closer I got to being stopped the slower the noise repeated itself. It seemed like something may be rubbing each time the wheel rotated. I can also slightly feel a vibration in the brake pedal when the noise happens. Once I began to accelerate through the intersection, I could not hear the noise. Here comes the next stop sign, and you guessed it, the noise came back. So the next day I called my uncle who is very knowledgeable with cars and he suggested that I may have some brake pad buildup on my rotors. I took the car out and did the 70-0 hard braking test, but could not for the life of me get the noise to repeat itself. So I thought, hey, maybe that was the problem. Well not so fast

A few weeks passed before I had to go home again, but after that 2hr drive the noise came right back. Great. So at this point, I called my uncle back up and he suggested that it could possibly be a wheel bearing/hub assembly, but not to worry too much about it atm. We concluded that whatever the problem is, it takes a 2hr drive to get whatever part is bad warmed up enough to start squealing, and 'should' have a decent amount of life left.

So the next time I went home was for spring break (3-13) and I dropped it off at the family's 'trusted' mechanic. I left on vacation on 3-15 and returned on 3-18, thinking it would give them plenty of time to get whatever was wrong fixed. They called me on 3-16 and said they think it is the axle carrier bearing. Fine, sounds good to me, fix it. So I get the car back and drive it back to school on 3-22. I get back to school and what do you know, it's still making the noise! Ok, this sucks. School got really busy and I couldn't take it back until Easter weekend. I dropped it off last Friday and I'm driving my old 96 right now. So come today get the call from the mechanic and he says that the only thing they could find was a loose bolt/nut on the suspension around where they replaced the ACB (or something like that). I find it very hard to believe that THAT loose bolt/nut could cause the noise especially since it was more than likely not loose before I originally brought it in back in March.

I still believe the culprit is the bearing/hub assembly, but the mechanic thinks otherwise. What do you guys think? I'm starting to get very frustrated bc the only way to tell if it got fixed is to drive the car 2hrs and see if it makes the noise. They said after they tightened the bolt/nut that the noise went away. Well no sh**! I guarantee that the noise went away 1-2hrs after i dropped the damn thing off last Friday. Any input will be much appreciated!

 

have you tried a load on the side that's making the noise? when my bearing went bad it was more of a humming on the bottom of my the floor board and got louder as i turned. (for me driver side was bad, so it was louder as i turned left) Once i changed that out the noise went away, but again mine noise was humming not squealing. rotors resurfaced?

 

is it like a whirring? is it so loud to where you have to turn your radio up a bit?

 

By putting a load on it do you mean turn the car and see if the noise gets louder? I haven't tried that but it makes the noise really in whatever direction you go. The rotors have not been resurfaced. Btw, there's 83k on the clock.

In order to hear it well I have to roll down the window. I can hear it with the window up, but it can be a little difficult to hear. It's not a whirring at all.

 

That sounds like the symptoms I had when my bearing/hub went bad. I had to drive to Arkansas from school when mine went bad. It grounded my rotors very bad, I guess that's how bad mine was...

 

Wheel hub/bearing is still my best guess. What do you mean 'it grounded my rotors'? Do you mean it made a grinding noise?

 

Mine ground my passenger rotor too when it went bad. You could literally hear it grinding.

The more you drive like that, the worse the sound/problems get. You might hear some random popping noises soon.

Also, the only time you'll hear it while the car is moving is when there is a wall or another car for the sound to reflect off. You wont hear it other wise.

Auto parts stores will only sell the bearing assembly itself, NOT the entire hub. I drove on mine so long that my hub ended up being damaged too. So the new bearing just slid on. It's supposed to be Pressed in. I thought I got the wrong bearing but I was lucky to have a spare hub lying around to see if it would work in that. If yours is as bad as mine was, you might go through the same thing.

 

I had to change my passenger hub barring and I had to change the hub also because the barring was stuck on the hub and it took 4 days for the hub to get there so you might want to see how long it will take for the hub to get there.

 

You mentioned that you hear it as you are coming to a stop. Is it only when you are using the brakes afetr a long trip??

If the above s true thenI would check the lubrication on the pins that the berake caliper rides on. If there is a binding there then the caliper will hang up when the brakes are applied causing the noise you speak of. It gets worse after long drives where heat from the rotor and hub causes expansion and more friction for the pins.

If not, then a bad hub sounds appropriate.

Good Luck.

 

Thats exactly what I hear it happens at random from my passenger side usually if I have load on that side or going uphill. Like you said hear it the best with the music and window down going by a wall or something, plus sqeaks over bumps so quite sure its the hub/bearing. hopefully when replaced all the annoying noises will be gone

 

Yea, I can only hear it when I brake coming to a stop. I'll try and check the pins, although I wouldn't know exactly what to look for.

I heard back from the mechanic today and they still do not think it is the wheel bearing. They put a stethoscope on it and couldn't find anything making any errant noises. They are still sticking behind their conclusion that the bolt/nut that holds the axle carrier bearing in place was loose and the noise went away after it got tightened. So hopefully now the noise is gone. If not, I'll try and see if what fflint_18 said is possibly causing the noise.