I've been hearing a lot of noise recently and it has gotten worse. It's coming from the front left wheel well and I'm starting to think it's the wheel bearing. It's been getting so annoying I took a video.

This is going about 15mph down a road:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...67158483547680


*****EDIT from most recent

so here's the update: I'm 99% sure it's not the wheel bearing. After consulting with a mechanic and asking for an estimate, he drove the car and thinks it was the brake pads getting caught up against the rotor. He said the components should be cleaned and re-lubed. I did that tonight and there's still a noise.


So...the sound has gotten a little worse but I found something out today.
When I'm stopped completely and I turn the wheel, the sound is present. I put my hand on the brake caliper while I turned the wheel (yes I could do both at the same time) and it's almost as if the caliper vibrated slightly as the wheel turned and the noise sounded.

Any ideas now??

 

I thought the wheel bearing would make a twirling sound.

There is another way to check for wheel bearing jack up the front and grab your rim at the 3 - 9 position and see if you get movement...

err its actually 3-9 or 6-12 i can't remember...

 

haha if this isn't a wheel bearing I just might have a duck in there. thanks for the advice!

For those interested and for future reference, this is when you have a bad wheel bearing:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...31656&q=&hl=en

 

when my bearing went bad, it didn't sound anything that loud.

i dunno it could be though.
jack the car up, rotate the wheels to check where its coming from. and check for axial play

 

Here's the story:

Jacked the car up and tested for a fouled wheel bearing...no luck. There was no play at all in the wheel.

We then jacked up the car on both sides (redneck method) and started the car. I put it in first and let the clutch out. The wheels turned and there WAS NO NOISE!

1. The noise occurs once every rotation at a specific spot.
2. I'm ruling out wheel bearing because there was no play???
3. When there's no pressure on the wheel (not on the ground) the sound doesn't occur

Tomorrow I'm removing the rim and putting my stock back on to rule out problems with my aftermarket wheel.

 

sre u sure ur tire isnt rubbing? the ineer fender guard plastic might be loose and lower than it should... when u jacked up da car and the wheels were hanging lower u probably wouldnt rub.

 

sometimes you wont get any axial play even if you hear the wheel bearings go bad. i think the only times when you'll get axial play is when its like on the brink of going really bad. i got abs no play when i heard my bearing go bad.

do you check for anything else that could become in contact when under pressure?

 

thanks for your help guys...
well maybe I shouldn't totally rule out the wheel bearing then. It's hard because I can't really see much with the wheel on. And there's really no way to examine it while the wheel is moving.

 

Im a little confused,in the video isnt the wheel off the ground?
also the no noise when no pressure is consistent with a bad bearing, if you have a stethoscpoe to put on the hub as it spins that would help alot...they are pretty cheap and really useful.
a method of road testing it for a bad bearing would be as follows:
get on a strait empty road and get going up to speed where the noise is present, then turn the car left and right(repeatedly if nessecary) and see if the noise gets quieter and louder in relation to the left and right movement. Is what this does is shift the weight on and off of each of the front wheels, if it gets louder when the weight is on the suspect wheel and quieter when its not ,then that is a pretty good indication of a bad wheel bearing.
like someone already said,the bearing can be failing but have no play ...yet.

the changing wheels is not a bad idea to check either.
hope this helps and please be careful if you use the above road test method.
hope this helps

 

alset, I really appreciate your help. the video is with my hand out the window while I'm driving on the road doing about 15mph. about an hour ago i jacked the car up to do the above the road test. I'll try your test tomorrow to check after I replace the wheel.

Thanks!

 

it wouldn't hurt to go by a shop either. just find a good local shop that will check out your bearings. can never be too safe

 

no problem, keep us posted

about the video...the video I get linked to shows some one spinning the wheel with their hand and the car is in a garage the whole time,am I looking at the wrong video?

edit: nevermind wasnt going up far enough...tired,looooonnng day!LOL

 

Check the dust guard around your rotor, could be touching the rotor in one spot on rotation. if so just bend it back a little. When the car was off the ground no weight was on it so rotor could have cleared where it was rubbing.

When my wheel bearing went bad i couldnt feel any play in it. But made a light squealing sound when moving slowly 10mph or so. No humming while turn no classic signs just the squealing replaced bearings squealing gone

 

ok ,now that I listened to the right video (dee dee)...um that sounds like something with the wheel after all,maybe a lose lug or something with the center cap.I have had lots of complaint by customers with the same kind of noise,usally its a lose center cap(or hub cap if thats the case)
definately try another wheel!

 

+1. My wheel never moved when I shook it. Only after removing the bearing did I actually see the play in the assembly.

 

*Update*

Took off the aftermarket wheel and put on stock. Started the car and went up and down the road...no noise!!

Drove to work today and after about 5 miles, the noise comes back and I was almost ready to drive my car into the nearest tree...

I'm going to examine the shield around the rotor and then I'm probably going to declare a bad wheel bearing?? Sound like a plan or should I inspect anything else?

 

Just a thought how about your axle nut...

 

Probably dust shield around rotor. I've had same noise. I'm getting the squealing noise though and right before i did the bearings in my transmission i started getting a grinding/clicking noise. I thought the diff bearings were really going on me but i had the same noise when i finished that job. The bearings in the 5-speed were really bad but wasn't the source of this noise. I just got this car about 10 weeks ago and the place i got it from supposedly replaced it about a week after i got it, but i started hearing the that low speed squealing sound within days if not right off. I probably thought at the time that it was something else down there but it became obvious that it was the bearing. Then after getting on her around some turns while being in a pissed off mood (you no how that is) i started hearing the other noise. It seems louder in the vehicle than when outside. Very noticable inside and in time with tire rotation. I had to lift the car and let it idle in 4th to really track down the source outside though. I thought it might be my diff bearings again but i'm sure all the clearences are right as far as that. I spent a whole day checking (and rechecking) those before assembly. Plus, i'm getting no noise and smooth operation out of the trans. Using a stethescope and just my plain ear up to the bottom of the trans, i'm not hearing that low pitched clicking noise or any noise for that matter. Like i said it's consistant with speed of wheel rotation but it's not that usual hum-hum or scrape sound at a specific spot(spots) in rotation. this noise is heard about 10 times per rotation. To me it sounds like every ball bearing rolling over a pretty deep pit in the race. It's the only thing that seems to come to mind for me especially with it being less of a scraping sound than a ...(roll your tongue. Thats simular to frequency of going about 25-35 mph)
One other thing i, i just bought a bearing from autozone today because I'm pretty sure it can't be any thing else. But the bearing they sell (Timken pt.# 510009) is a one piece assembly, not multi-piece bearing described in the shop manual or the motorvate article on front wheel bearing replacement. Is this an updated version or does autozone just have the wrong bearing listed. And do you think that last bearing went bad by being pressed on by the inner race instead of the outter? Why else would it go bad so quickly. That wheel had a lot of play in it before they fixed and it is still tight right now but it's definetly noisy. You think they just pressed the worn bearings in tighter to screw me or what?

 

jeebus!!! can we make this anymore cluttered?

 

English. Do you speak it?! That is horrendous, but at least it's not some idiot e-thugging.


Anyhow, I'm voting for driving straight and then making hard left and right turns slightly, sort of like a slalom. If the outter side (the side your own body is leaning towards) starts getting louder in the turns, it's probably the bearing.

-From the video, it sounds like a dust shield
-Probably not the axle nut if there's no play when you jack up the car
-Check the axle to make sure it's not rubbing on debris

 

thanks for everyone's input. i'll be checking the dust shield tomorrow, then comes more diagnosis.

 

so here's the update: I'm 99% sure it's not the wheel bearing. After consulting with a mechanic and asking for an estimate, he drove the car and thinks it was the brake pads getting caught up against the rotor. He said the components should be cleaned and re-lubed. I did that tonight and there's still a noise.


So...the sound has gotten a little worse but I found something out today.
When I'm stopped completely and I turn the wheel, the sound is present. I put my hand on the brake caliper while I turned the wheel (yes I could do both at the same time) and it's almost as if the caliper vibrated slightly as the wheel turned and the noise sounded.

Any ideas now??

 

Im still leaning towards the bearing. did you do the road test that was talked about above?
another thing would be go to the auto parts store and spend 10 bucks on a stethoscope and pin point it that way.

 

hey alset. Yes I did those tests and it seemed to be the bearing but the mechanic says he's never heard one like that before..i'll stop for one of those things today. thanks

 

sure sounds like one to me . even the vibration thing with your hand on the caliper. it sounds just like a stuck roller or a flat spoted roller.
however with the stethoscope you will be able to really hear it !
youll want to probe around the hub close to the bearing as you can get while its spinning. if you want you can gradually work your way out away from the bearing taking note of the volume of the noise as you move away - it should get quieter .

oh yeh, that road test stuff you did is a really, really good indicator of a failing bearing btw

 

hey guys, latest update. IT'S FIXED! took it to midas today for the heck of it and after an hour and a half they found it to be a loose axle nut! They didn't even charge me either so I tipped the guy 10 bucks. Case closed

 

So what do I win

 

hahaha good job man! I honestly didn't even notice you said that. That was most likely due to the hype that it was truly the bearing, but anyway, thanks!