DeeKay

Id have someone do a road force balance. Much better than a normal balance. That will answer some questions. As some have stated to test wheel bearing go about highway speed and slalom left to right and see if the noise is louder on one side with the load being applied.

If you put the car on jack stands and set the cruise at 45-60 mph and get under it, will you hear the noise? You can pinpoint using a stethoscope.

duffman13

That won't work well since it's the fronts.

DeeKay

if you get a stethoscope and put it near front hubs and have someone spin the tire as fast as they can. I'm not sure if it will generate enough noise for you to hear a growling/grinding sound from wheel bearing considering you're having trouble at such high speeds. Still recommend a road force balance.

cdelena

Wheel bearing failure on my car were identified at slow speed whirring and clicking maybe 20 - 40 mph. After that any noise was hidden by road noise.

I sure would look hard at tire noise and balance before jumping into bearings.

BTW I have found that unloaded bearings don't make noise for me and one poorly informed dealership here would only check them out on a rack with a stethoscope so they never heard a problem. I replaced all four on my car so noise is gone and handling improved.

street_ruler

lift whatever end of the car is making noise.

put your off hand on the spring and rotate the wheel. spin it as fast as you can. now do the other side of the car. which one felt weird with your off hand? thats the bad bearing side.

eventually it will get worse then suddenly stop. If its stops thats bad. it means the outer bearing race is spinning inside the hub.

Gottabfast

Bearings can fail in a couple of different ways, which makes the noise difficult to diagnose at times. Don't even try if you have really worn tires. Make sure tires are at the correct pressure when you go to listen for noise.

The best way is to take the wheel off and remove the brake pads and rotors to turn the hub by hand. The bearing should feel smooth as you turn it by hand. If there is any looseness, ticking, binding, or roughness felt as you turn - the bearing is bad or there's not enough preload on it. A stethoscope/screwdriver is helpful to listen for ticking or grinding. If they still feel smooth, the damage hasn't progressed enough or they're fine. A single flake mark or raceway impact mark inside of a bearing won't cause noise until higher speeds and is tough to distinguish. Usually bearing noise starts higher pitched as a hum, then progresses into a growling over time and becomes apparent at lower speeds as the bearing raceway flakes away. Tires typically growl and are more likely to have a resonance at higher speeds. If you change the tire pressure (6-7 psi safely)you can sometimes also change the noise if it's the tire.

Hopefully that helps. Bearing failure is significant enough that if you suspect it, it's worth the work to try to diagnose it.

duffman13

So after I was up on the lift yesterday, there was no play whatsoever in the wheel bearings or noise when I turned the front wheels. There was some play in the tie rods and one of the boots was torn, so I feel good about replacing them. I also threw the wheels on the balancing machine and all 4 were came up balanced. I'm thinking now it might just be tire noise? but it doesn't make sense that it would be this loud and sound more slap-like.

And in the "I can't get a break" department, the hood latch mechanism managed to get jammed in the popped position. At least it didn't jam while closed like I've seen it happen to other people on the boards. I ordered a new latch, doesn't seem like a hard swap.