Low Rumbling Noise

[Grego 92]

If you've caught my other posts, I recently did the top-end (new head gasket) on my 90 camry 2vz-fe.

My new problem is a low rumbling noise that can be felt under the drivers feet and even under the passenger feet a little when accelerating while driving. It doesn't happen any more or less while turning. When in neutral or park and stepping on the gas the engine does not make the noise. It's not a knock or ping as I've had a couple guys familiar with cars drive it also.

A little history: Before I had put new struts on I noticed the front driver side wheel would jiggle a bit. When I had the tire off I could grab the rotor and shake it about 1/8-1/4 of an inch. The other side was solid with no movement. I thought it may be the struts. I now have four new kyb struts and I also had the steering bellows replaced. But I can still jiggle it.

My guesses: 1. a worn bushing (lower control arm) 2. loose caliper/rotor 3. broken engine mount 4. one or more belts on too tight 5. ????

Has someone experienced something similar? Any ideas?

['88 All-Trac]

Bad wheel bearing? If the rotor moves, that is baaaad juju. (No offense to anyone here, it's a joke between my brother and I.)

I don't know how similar the front end in the SV21 is as compared to the ST204 (American Celica GT) but my brother's kind of groaned a bit when cruising and rumbled under acceleration- he figured it was time to replace the wheel bearings and when the shop got to the passenger side front, it was more a pile of bits of metal than it was a bearing anymore.

[Grego 92]

After your post, of all places I looked on youtube and found a video that said "how you know you have a bad bearing" and the guy in it did exactly what I did by shaking it

Is it expensive to do yourself? It looked like the video just showed him removing the tire, brake caliper and then unbolting the wheel bearing or housing?

['88 All-Trac]

I haven't done them yet on a Camry. On my bro's Celica, you remove the wheel, caliper, etc. to get the "hub" out (It's a little thingy the rotor mounts to) and the old bearing presses out. Use the old bearing to press the new one in. A basic 12-ton hydraulic press from HF will work... Not too expensive to have it done at a shop, either.

[Grego 92]

Just an update. The moving of the wheel was due to a bad drivers side inner and outer tie rod, not the wheel bearing. I replaced it and some of the rumbling noise went away. I have now moved onto the motor mounts and found a broken center one. Here is the new question/thread.

Center Engine/Motor Mount 90' 2.5L V6

My bad tie rods

The outer would stay bent like this whereas the new one would spring back


The bad inner did the same thing and i could also pull it in and out a good 1/2" that is why my tire moved when I shook it.


Used a hammer and bar to bend those washers straight so I could unscrew the inner tie rod.

Bending the washer straight


This tie rod tool made the job easy once the washer was bent straight. Got it from harbor freight and used my 20% coupon...I think it was like $40. It came with different size crows feet, and good thing because the Moog tie rod needed one size larger/smaller (can't remember) to install. The Moog inner tie rod was made in the USA, but the Moog outer tie rod was made in Japan....thought that was weird.

[holmesnmanny]

Originally Posted by '88 All-Trac

I haven't done them yet on a Camry. On my bro's Celica, you remove the wheel, caliper, etc. to get the "hub" out (It's a little thingy the rotor mounts to) and the old bearing presses out. Use the old bearing to press the new one in. A basic 12-ton hydraulic press from HF will work... Not too expensive to have it done at a shop, either.

On my Camry, which should be the same even with the different engine. I first had someone push the brakes while I pulled off the axle nut. Then I pulled the caliper, tying it up with a bungie cord of course. Then I pulled the rotor off. Then I took off the tie-rod using a 10 dollar tie-rod remover. Then I unbolted the two bolts that hold the knuckle to the lower control arm/ball joint(which is a lot easier than having to pop the ball joint out. Then I took off the two bolts holding the strut to the knuckle. Then pulled the knuckle out of axle. Then I took the knuckle down with my Duralast 40 dollar hub repair kit to a local machine shop and he him press the hub out of the knuckle and the new bearing into the new hub and the hub into the knuckle for $25 bucks.

It appears that your bearing is about to be disastrous. You can check it by raising the wheel up and putting the car into neutral and spinning the wheel while looking at the play inside. If it wiggles at the hub/knuckle you know it's bad. Plus you can hear it of course, which appears to be your sound.