Front End Growling Noise

Hey everybody. I'm new to this forum and was hoping to find a little advice about a problem I started having with my 06 Tacoma. Within the last month or two ive been noticing a louder than normal road noise/growling coming from the front end. Its hard to tell exactly what side its coming from, but im thinking its more from the left. Ive gone through a bunch of threads, some dating back to 09, with little success. People have been experiencing similar front end growling, but none of their symptoms seem to fit perfectly. Growling increases with speed and is unnoticeable at slower speeds (leads me to believe its a bearing issue). It does not go away when i engage 4x4 (unlike symptoms in past threads), but it goes away and runs smooth when i make sharper right-hand turns (maybe the left wheel bearing is taking a load). I put it up on a lift and pulled the wheels off to examine the left side. Noticed a little up and down slop in the brake rotor/hub assembly and the normal slop on the shaft where it comes out of the front diff. CV joints are solid, front diff oil is clean, topped off and not leaking. When i spun he left front brake rotor (w/o wheel on) and did notice that it spun a little rough, but wasnt sure if that was normal. Finally, im not noticing any drag on either side in the wheel, but can feel the vibe in the wheel and pedals. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

Z

 

wheel bearing is my guess.

 

My 08 just had the exact same problem. It was the wheel bearing. It does't take much in the bearing for it to get loud. When I removed mine there was hardly any sound or grinding at all it just got snagged a bit every turn by hand. A good bearing should turn completely smooth with no sound at all. Really easy to replace on your own but it does need to be pressed out and back together (the shop around the corner from me did it in a pinch)

 

sound like a wheel bearing
easy fix....

 

Thanks for the help fellas. That's pretty much what I figured but i wanted to get an outside opinion before I started loosening bolts. Any suggestions for finding replacements next to driving down to Toyota and paying $$$ for their parts?

 

Got mine at Car Quest (Canada) $150 with 3 yr warranty. Was $285 at Toyota.

 

got mine from ebay and the seals from rock auto......
then you can have a trail spare as well all for under $100

 

Needle bearing if it goes away in 4x4

 

Cool. Ill check them out. The noise definitely is still there when it's in 4x4. That's what made me think it wasn't something more with the diff but after I change the wheel bearings and the noise is still there ill take a look at the needles

 

I literally just fixed this exact problem yesterday for my front left hub one my 06 Taco. Look up a username on here, nj636, or send him a private message. He sells the whole hub replacement for $180 bucks with shipping and it is bolt on, so no need to find a press to do bearings and all that. I went with the whole hub instead of just the bearings (if you read a lot of other threads they'll say do both at the same time or you'll just have the same problem shortly). I did the whole job, from jacking it up to setting it back down on it's wheels in about 40 minutes. Got rid of the growling noise immediately.

 

I just started getting the growling noise/vibe on the drivers side. I have a 2012 sport 4x4 with billies all around with 33's, the front set to the highest. It's been almost 6 months since I had it installed, and driven around 5k miles. I just started hearing the growling noise after I went through a flat field of snow last week. Do you guys think its my wheel hub?