Help me diagnose front end noise

The title says it. I have a howling noise coming from the front end that I can't pinpoint and sounds like I'm running mud tires.


It increases in volume with speed and is fairly constant, but mostly goes away when turning right. There is no change when turning left and no change between 2wd and 4wd operation. At first, I thought it was tire wear b/c of worn shocks however, after replacing the shocks, having it aligned and having the tires rotated, there was no change.

Two years and approximately 60K miles ago, I replaced the front diff side bearing with the ECGS bushing, replaced the CV shaft and replaced the diff lube with

$30 Mobil 1 75W90 Mobil 1 104361 75W-90 Synthetic Gear Lube - 1 Quart (Pack of 2)

Mobil 1 75W90.

My thoughts at this point are that I either have a wheel bearing that's bad or a diff carrier bearing going bad. Last night I jacked the truck up and spun both wheels and didn't notice that one was turning rough. I also replaced the front diff lube, again with Mobil 1 75W90.

Since I don't see much gear lube, I'm having a hard time deciding whether the color of the oil I drained is "normal". (pic posted below) There was some paste on the drain plug and a couple of small pieces of grit/metal stuck to the magnet, but not enough to make me think that there was a major issue afoot.

Any help you could render would be very much appreciated.

 

sounds like a bad wheel bearing

 

Agreed. You can also jack up the front and shake the suspect wheel. You'll likely have some play in it. Not always though.

 

usually if it goes away when turning its a wheel bearing

 

Sounds like a wheel bearing since sound chages depending on speed

 

Thank you gentlemen. I've just ordered two bearing assemblies from BamaToy. I'll report back once I have them swapped out.

 

All's quiet on the Tacoma front...

I installed the right bearing last night and saw no real improvement. This bearing had 90k or so on it. No visible play and no noise when spun by hand. It did, however, puke a bunch of grease into the spindle.

I installed the left bearing this evening. This one had 163k on it. Same observations as the right bearing w/o the grease puke. Test drive revealed that the problem was solved.

 

Did you put in the new improved HD bearings?

 

I installed Bamatoy's bearings: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-ive-done-the-work-you-save-the-money.288282/