Accident-info requested

[96GoldLE]

Yesterday I had a somewhat minor accident with my 96 Camry. I hit some ice, spun a time or two and then hit an embankment with the left side of the car. Bumper scuffs and hubcap scuffs. That kind of stuff. No apparant body damage. The car steers fine, does not vibrate or shake and rides fine. As soon as I continued on my way to work, I noticed at highway speeds a very noticable howl coming from either the left front or rear of the car. I got to work and sent the car to a pretty decent shop. They inspected the car and did not find any suspension damage which would include ball joints, control arms, struts and wheel bearings. A 4 wheel alignment was completed by the garage as well. My question, is this. The garage cannot find anything wrong with the car, but the howl is still very much there. The mechanic at work, who was hunting yesterday, looked at the car today and said that he believes that it's one of the wheel bearings. Does this sound correct to you all or is there something else that I should be looking at in addition to the wheel bearing? I'd like to get this fixed, but I certainly don't want to keep paying garages for them to tell me that there is nothing wrong that is visible anyway. I understand that a wheel bearing can at some point become a safety hazard.

[Knailgun]

I think the mech may be right, the wheel bearing may be the culprit, I hope so too, as anything else is some $$$$. Yet another reason why I have a truck for the winter.

[Hatch]

yes wheel bearing, relatively cheap fix. Sometimes you cant even tell that a bearing is gone except under load which may be why the first mechanic didnt find anything (although he should have known this)

[dallison]

damn you had snow in pa??? already?

[96GoldLE]

Nope, not snow. I hit run-off from a rain storm that had frozen overnight.