Roaring noise. Wheel bearing?

Sounds like ur describing a bad front right bearing. When u turn left is the noise still there ? When u turn left ur load (weight) towards the right side . And when u turn right u load the left side and of course unload the right and thats when the noise goes away. You have described a bad front right wheel bearing. Keep us posted. Good luck.

 

Yep...Right turn curves it goes away...Gonna replace them both...today ...I stepped up a bit in size when I bought Michelins and its started 2 months later...Bet thats it...Thanks !

 

Some things I've learned over doing many bearings on all the family cars:

1. Many bearings have no difference in sound banking left or right.
2. The louder/softer bank left/right theory doesn't work all the time*
3. It always sounds like it's coming from a side/corner that it's not really coming from
4. The wife always says it's the opposite side that it ends up being - regardless of whether she's the passenger or driver
5. The daughter can only describe it as "the car is making a funny noise."
6. The greatest investment I've done for wheel bearing diagnosis (even though it's not used much) as a Chassis Ear.

The Chassis Ear has saved me numerous times from changing the wrong bearing, and that includes wrong side and/or front rear, and more than paid for itself in time and money.

*My personal theory is because sealed bearings have both an inner and outer race, and depending on which one is bad (when not both races), it can throw the left/right bank sound off.

 

Ok...Picking up one front bearing assy now..The other one is on its way...Right handed curves make the roar go away.. Right side bearing change coming up shortly...Got a pretty good deal on the bearing assembly for 49 each..Moog also..so thats a good deal...Got 12 wheel studs for 10 bucks too...Thats a great deal.

 

Thats a great price. Good luck hope it goes easy.

 

Just removed the right side disc and sprayed the 4 bolts...Hub Spindle is real tight...Thats the one !

 

However, the rotor is ruined badly from overheating...I just replaced the ones on my 2012, and promply totalled it...So, my Jan pension check, or the 600 buck covid , new rotors

 

Over at another buds that has a press..We should've done that 2 hrs ago...It'll slap in quick after we get back..

 

$50 for a wheel bearing assembly is a great price! So when you turn right and the noise goes away it's the passenger side bearing that needs replacing?

 

Ok folks, sorry for the delay...I replaced the assembly on the right passenger side and it didn't help...The bearings WERE grinding like crazy, so I feel a little better...Nothing has been done since...I just kept thinking, the roar goes away when I'm in a r hand curve...And these are Tennessee backroad, bermed curves...My bud, who stethescoped it in the beginning thinks he heard it in the pinion bearing...And I remember the fella who said that the curves don't matter sometimes...Lets hear your opinions boys....I have a few days before my pension check shows up and I'd like to get this as close as I can to correct...Thanks !

 

I wish I had the time right now to do my own. 89,500 miles and one has been howling for a while.

I bought two Detroit Axle front wheel bearing assemblies from Amazon for $146. I had a local ASE certified mechanic do them for me (he does the work I can’t or don’t want to); he charged $182 total for both sides. Just over $300. Reasonable to me, and I also can walk to and from his shop (1/2 mile away).

 

Useless update...Gonna raise my truck again and diagnose the location of my roar..Been watching some vids for ideas and we're gonna find the sucker tonight ...I re-read Tak1313's
post about both sealed bearings have a inside and outside race that could fail on either side, causing the curve method of diagnosis to be faulty..Thats his theory ( I should have said first ) ..And since the roar is so ambiant, we are still going to check everything...It will be interesting to see if its the right rear since the noise ceases in right hand turns..I suppose it might be the 3rd member also..If its a left side bearing then I'm thiinking Tak's theory will be right...Gonna try the stethescope and pinpoint this...

 

Stethescope diagnosed as the Pinion bearing...I've never been into a rear end rebuild before and me and Flic will tackle anything..He advises against it..Says there is too many senerios in this...Its grinding..so I think what the bearing is grinding on is the ring gear...He also said there are a shitload of gears and stuff...The rebuild kit I saw on Carids.com was Worx Ring and pinion kit at 450 total...And the girl i chatted with said it was no problem fix...I'm thinking it costs a good amount to have it done..But its getting worse so I its gotta happen soon...With my limited knowledge, since the pinion bearing is where the driveshaft enters the 3rd member....So, Tak1313 has his theory still in play...

 

I’m interested as I’ve had a rotating noise for some time now and haven’t diagnosed. I’ve had both front bearings changed by local mechanic, and noise persisted. Kept bugging me so I took it to a different shop and they said front bearing. They swapped out as well but noise was still there...they changed only for parts and were embarrassed for misdiagnosis (good guys). They said it might be needle bearing, so we swapped out East Coast gear...noise still there.

Both mechanics checked U-joints and both didn’t think it was a rear bearing but I’m thinking now that is the problem (or possibly a carrier bearing?)

Interested in this topic.

2012 Tacoma 4x4 short bed, 80k miles.

 

I highly recommend the Steelman ChassisEar. It comes with 6 microphone units so you can listen to multiple similar locations while actually moving/driving. It comes in wired or wireless versions. I have the wireless version bought used on fleabay for $100, but some complain about too much static noise, which mine had on a couple of transmitters, but I found (in my case) that it was simply a matter of rca connectors that was not clamping tight enough so would jiggle with the vibrations that occur when driving around.

You just have to make sure, for example, that if trying to monitor bearing noise at the four corners, the microphone clamps are the same distance from the bearings so the volume of the noise being heard is not getting skewed because one is closer than another.

Because of the differences between front and rear suspensions, I listen to the two fronts and two rears separately. When there's a bad bearing, it's quite easily heard when switching back and forth.

If you are trying to see if it's the bearing or differential, use 3 - near the left and right bearings, and one mounted near the differential.

 

Well, It's been quite awhile since I last posted on my roaring bearing that was so hard to pin down...To make matters more confusing, I did detect a bit of grinding in the foward part of my differential...I am still gonna have my mechanic buddy take care of that for me. but he is thinking its not into the gears...I just haven't had the money to pony up just in case it DOES turn into a bigger deal that expected...
But as time has passed , the roaring had changed pitch and we know that curving left or right isn't going to cause a pinion bearing or any kind of bearing centered around the drive shaft to go silent...Mechanic buddy was betting on the right rear making all the noise...But, I swear , I kept remembering what Tak1313 was saying about not being able to rely on the curve test...I'd already missed with a right side front bearing assembly...It didn't solve the noise but it was fairly ground up....So, since these fwd bearing assemblies are fairly cheap, ( 127 bucks) I changed out the drivers side assembly last night....And Tak1313 was absolutely right...That freaking roar that had me close to insanity is GONE...
So Tak 1313's comments were dead on....Even though right curves caused my roar to go silent, a bearing has both an inner and outer race, and it depends on which side has gone bad...Thanks Tak1313 for a lesson well learned...Now I can listen to Sturgill Simpson tearing up some new bluegrass on my new stereo and not have to scream over the roar...

 

This also helped me out when I was diagnosing the truck that I ended up purchasing anyway. My symptoms were above 20mph or so it sounded like there was another motor under my hood. It would get louder and persist at fast speeds but go away at slow speeds. It also wouldn't go away when I released the gas pedal and coasted, until it got to below 20mph or so. From what my search could tell, this was a bit of a design flaw in the early second gens and Toyota designed an upgraded bearing to replace them.

As for Sturgill Simpson...

 

When I have done front wheel bearings, i always do both sides. If one side is toasted, the other will be gone soon enough. Had 2 pro mechanics tell me wheel bearings were fine, no play at all, and sound was something else. I changed bearings anyway and that fixed the noises. Noticed that once brakes were removed, spinning the old hub by hand sounded like i was grinding sand on metal.

 

Agreed 100% on that...And they both felt like sandpaper when I spun the hub also..I'm looking at some Timkins stuff right now..Planning for that differential slap back thats gotta be dealt with...A kid who is a real gear head told me something today about my crush washer ? It's definitely gonna need some fixing...But he was telling me ( over my head ) that there are these manual clutches ( I was ragged tired ) that are packed in the differential that will have to be replaced..Said that was the bigger problem for me..