Not the wheel bearings, not the brakes

Background: coming back from a road trip, the front end developed a shake/shimmy through the steering wheel. Swapped fronts with the backs and it moved to the back. Turns out the former front tires were separating. Thought that was the whole issue. . .what a sucker I am.

There's now a low pitched wom-wom-wom-wom at lower speeds, the traditional higher like a wheel bearing at higher speeds. The low pitched I can feel through the brake pedal, the high pitched not. Doesn't seem to go away turning either direction.

Hubby put it up on jack stands, checked wheel bearings not running, fired it up and checked them running and there wasn't any wom-wom-wom (grrrrr!), looked at the brakes and still found nothing. Tires don't show any unusual wear.

We're fresh out of ideas. Suggestions of where else to look, or other ways to check what we already have????

Rolling noise is a tough diagnosis. The thump could be tire, perhaps you just replaced 2.
Little more info on the high pitched please. Speeds, turn, oscillation, brake affect etc.

YouTube has some clips to help with typical front end stuff like bearings, cvs, shock mounts, bushes, joints.
Anecdotal-Last front end noise I had, was ready to replace the cv, discovered it was a hanging caliper slide.

Does it happen during acceleration or deceleration?

Running it without weight on the wheels will tell you nothing about the wheel bearings. To check wheel bearings, while driving straight, move the steering wheel slightly off center one way and then the other several times. If it is a bad wheel bearing, the noise will change.

Ol'Rattler said:

Running it without weight on the wheels will tell you nothing about the wheel bearings. To check wheel bearings, while driving straight, move the steering wheel slightly off center one way and then the other several times. If it is a bad wheel bearing, the noise will change.

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As I understand it, if it makes the noise when you turn to the left it means the right wheel bearing is the one complaining as the car's weight is shifting to that direction, and vice versa.

"Doesn't seem to go away turning either direction."

No extra movement up/down or side/side when grabbing the wheel either on the ground or jacked up.

Both accel and decel.

Leaning toward something in the front brakes. May also still be both wheel bearings that are starting to go, or maybe only need to be repacked (hence no excess motion to find). Strange and frustrating!

Did you replace all 4 tires? If not perhaps it's tire noise from the ones you still have on the car?

MarsBar said:

"Doesn't seem to go away turning either direction."

No extra movement up/down or side/side when grabbing the wheel either on the ground or jacked up.

Both accel and decel.

Leaning toward something in the front brakes. May also still be both wheel bearings that are starting to go, or maybe only need to be repacked (hence no excess motion to find). Strange and frustrating!

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If it's the wheel bearings you will make it noisy if you do the drive test that was mentioned. Drive at freeway speed in the lane and make a lane change . Then establish your lane and do it in the opposite direction. The noise should get noticeably louder if it's the wheel bearings.

A wheel bearing will be making a lot of noise long before it could get to that level.

jokila said:

As I understand it, if it makes the noise when you turn to the left it means the right wheel bearing is the one complaining as the car's weight is shifting to that direction, and vice versa.

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I've had it turn out to be the loaded side and the unloaded side. Either way if the noise changes when you shake it side to side violently enough to transfer the weight on/off the wheel bearings you can point with good certainty at one of the wheel bearings.

Run your hand on the tire forwards and backwards, over time the tread will wear with ridges on the start and end of the tread blocks from higher braking forces than acceleration forces. If they're doing that then swap them side to side and the noise will go away over time

jokila said:

As I understand it, if it makes the noise when you turn to the left it means the right wheel bearing is the one complaining as the car's weight is shifting to that direction, and vice versa.

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Negative. There are inner and outer races on the front bearings. Depending on which is gakked, the rule above will be true or false.


To test bearings, lift the vehicle front end, transmission in N. Rotate a wheel by hand while holding the spring. You will feel the friction coming through the spring.

On a Toyota I had in the past, the bearings were so bad they caused the front tires to develop cupping, which made it ride like hell.

I would check for bearing friction on both sides. Also take your new rear tires and put them on the front to see if that changes anything. Some tires are just noisy.

[486] said:

I've had it turn out to be the loaded side and the unloaded side. Either way if the noise changes when you shake it side to side violently enough to transfer the weight on/off the wheel bearings you can point with good certainty at one of the wheel bearings.

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That-s the way it was on the okd Fiat 128 I had. All you had to do was drift left slightly and slightly drift right which would load and unload the inner and outer bearings depending how you which way you were drifting.

My Grand Daughters Hyundai both races must have been chowdered because it just plain old made noise no matter how you steered.

One other possibility is a caliper hang up slightly when hot, when cools it rolls free. Drive it and use the brakes hard, then check all calipers and rotors with an infrared thermometer. If it is a brake issue it will show up.

Turning/swerving either direction does nothing to the sound. Not discounting that both bearings are having issues. The street to our shop has some nice curves, as does the off-ramp by my house; great for swerve testing wheel bearings. ;} The noise is quite noticeable if I have the window down.

Feeling the vibration through the brake pedal seems that it might be a brake issue. Haven't gotten around to checking the tires of odd wear or signs of separating. With the B4V being totalled, it's been a little crazy lately.

flashmayo said:

Negative. There are inner and outer races on the front bearings. Depending on which is gakked, the rule above will be true or false.

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no, go one way and the upper side of the inner race and the lower side of the outer race are load bearing, go the other way and it flips
both are loaded when you're going either way, it is just how much of the vehicle's weight is on the bearing that makes the difference.

You all say "drift left and right"
maybe with the worst of them, but with most of them I've gotta figure out they barely make a whisper with anything less than jerking the wheel side to side hard enough that you would not do that kind of maneuvering in the rain. People ***** about the smallest most insignificant noises these days.

Oh right, transmission carrier bearings can sound exactly like wheel bearings, but you'll hear them on the hoist.
CV axles can make some strange noises when they're bottoming out, then go quiet with the suspension drooped.
Engine speed or road speed?
So many variables that it's basically impossible to diag over the phone.

MarsBar said:

May also still be both wheel bearings that are starting to go, or maybe only need to be repacked (hence no excess motion to find).

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Front and rear wheel bearings are lubed-for-life, non serviceable unitized assemblies. Remove and replace if bad.