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sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 8:01 pm
by 98Regency
I've got this growing/whirring noise coming from the front passenger corner that sounds exactly like a bad wheel bearing. It goes away when I turn right and unload that side, and it seems to come and go as I accelerate. It also gets really loud when slowing down, especially at 35-40 mph. I've replaced both front wheel bearings and tires within the last couple hundred miles, and alignment. I've about run out of ideas on what it might be. Car is a 98 Olds Regency with 135k miles. Anyone else ever have this?
Re: sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 9:56 pm
by haro1225
What brand bearing did you get? Sometimes the cheap ones are bad out of the box, or they don't last very long.
Re: sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:19 pm
by 98Regency
They're Timken wheel bearings. I know they can be bad out of the box, but I've personally never had a Timken one that was.
Re: sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:22 pm
by haro1225
Everything was properly torqued down? Maybe something worked itself loose.
Re: sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:39 pm
by 98Regency
It's quite possible that the axle nut backed itself off, I'll have to check that out tomorrow. Anything else I should check?
Re: sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 2:48 pm
by J Wikoff
CV axle wobble? How'd the brake rotor look?
Re: sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 3:49 pm
by 98Regency
Rotor looked okay, but might still have a slight warp to it. The axle boots looked okay too, but I didn't grab and shake it to check for play in the joints. Hopefully it stops raining at some point this afternoon so I can get the car jacked up and take a look
Re: sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 1:26 am
by Roadrunner
I had differential gears go out by making that kind of sound.
Similar to wheel bearing, the sound varied with vehicle speed (as opposed to engine speed).
Difference was that sound also changed when accelerating vs coasting - louder when coasting.
After a short time, I noticed trans fluid had fine sparkly glitter and then started to get burned.
Re: sounds like a wheel bearing, but isn't?
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 10:11 pm
by ad356
i have a different GM vehicle that made terrible noise from the front end. i swore up and down it was a wheel bearing. it turned out to be my control bushings and gone bad and it caused the alignment to be thrown off. i replaced both wheel bearings and the noise persisted. i would check your control arm bushings. it screwed up my tires pretty bad too. i had to replace the control arm bushings and do an alignment. the car is a 1996 camaro Z28 and yup i still have it. try this, it wont work with a RWD car like my camaro but will work with the bonneville as long as you dont have a LSD. be careful doing this. i did this technique to my 2000 GTP and was to determine for a fact that i was replacing the side that was bad. takes the guess work right out of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdRpnK5MGQ8