Bad Wheel Bearing, or something else?

[gwilburn]

2007 Camry SE with 143,000 miles. A year or so ago I noticed what sounded like a bad wheel bearing at highway speeds. Had new tires, alignment etc. Switched over to snow tires and didn't seem to notice. Now that we've run the Summer Tires into the ground, the noise is back and pretty bad. I can't seem to put my finger on where it is coming from.

1. While backing out of the driveway, I can almost feel a "binding" - not in the steering wheel. Can also hear a rumble.
2. At 15-20 mph the noise is loudest. First though it sounded like left rear... sat in the back, but can't be 100% sure.
3. Swerve test... no change turning to the left?? A hard right seems to quiet the noise breifly.
4. At highway speeds the sound is diminished quite a bit - but still noticable.
5. Absolutely no play in any of the wheels when up on the stand - but my dad seemed to think he felt a "wobble" when riding in the car at 20 mph

I would take it to the dealer, but they dropped Toyota this spring (or vise versa)... didn't seem real swift anyway. I'm sure they would go through a process of elimination (of my money).

Hate to buy the parts and try (given the price and amount of work). The rear is sold as bearing/hub assembly and the front is sold separately.

Going to try jacking it up again and rotating the wheels while "feeling" the springs (as suggested in another post). Also, may just throw the snow tires back on to see if things change (doubt it).

Any other wisdom?

[Luna2]

Originally Posted by gwilburn

2007 Camry SE with 143,000 miles. A year or so ago I noticed what sounded like a bad wheel bearing at highway speeds. Had new tires, alignment etc. Switched over to snow tires and didn't seem to notice. Now that we've run the Summer Tires into the ground, the noise is back and pretty bad. I can't seem to put my finger on where it is coming from.

1. While backing out of the driveway, I can almost feel a "binding" - not in the steering wheel. Can also hear a rumble.
2. At 15-20 mph the noise is loudest. First though it sounded like left rear... sat in the back, but can't be 100% sure.
3. Swerve test... no change turning to the left?? A hard right seems to quiet the noise breifly.
4. At highway speeds the sound is diminished quite a bit - but still noticable.
5. Absolutely no play in any of the wheels when up on the stand - but my dad seemed to think he felt a "wobble" when riding in the car at 20 mph

I would take it to the dealer, but they dropped Toyota this spring (or vise versa)... didn't seem real swift anyway. I'm sure they would go through a process of elimination (of my money).

Hate to buy the parts and try (given the price and amount of work). The rear is sold as bearing/hub assembly and the front is sold separately.

Going to try jacking it up again and rotating the wheels while "feeling" the springs (as suggested in another post). Also, may just throw the snow tires back on to see if things change (doubt it).

Any other wisdom?

While you are rotating your tires, test each wheel by spinning and listen for any unusual noise. Also grab each wheel and pull with the left hand and push with the right hand to check for any play between the axle and wheel bearing. I had a car that the front wheel bearing went bad on and I found it by rolling the window down and listening for the noise as I passed a building that was close to the road, and picked out which wheel it was by the noise echo direction, from that building. (I didn't have any helper to call on at the time.)

[gwilburn]

Originally Posted by Luna2

While you are rotating your tires, test each wheel by spinning and listen for any unusual noise. Also grab each wheel and pull with the left hand and push with the right hand to check for any play between the axle and wheel bearing. I had a car that the front wheel bearing went bad on and I found it by rolling the window down and listening for the noise as I passed a building that was close to the road, and picked out which wheel it was by the noise echo direction, from that building. (I didn't have any helper to call on at the time.)

Thanks... but I already did that (twice). Only noise is the brakes dragging slightly on the rear. Even stuck my head out the rear door @ 15 mph while someone else was driving

[gwilburn]

I'm guessing it was "Something Else"... Just thought I'd update my own thread in case anyone else ran into this. I would have laid money on a wheel bearing.

Removed the 17" factory aluminum wheels and BF Goodrich tires. They were shot and it's starting to get into the winter season. Put the 16" steel wheels with General Arctic Ice tires all the way around. NOISE IS GONE!!

I recall now that I thought I started to hear a "faint wheel bearing" noise right about the time we installed the BF Goodrich tires. It has progressively gotten louder (coincidentally as the tires wore). Tires wore evenly across all 4 tires, but the passenger side front was smooth, and the passenger rear was the next worse.

I think I had a bad tire??