Cal Club Autocross Forums

What does a wheel bearing going bad sound like?

My S2000 is making very loud noises from my passenger side rear wheel. It only makes the sound when driving. We jacked the car up and spun the wheels and it did not make the noise. It sounds kind of like wawawawa and gets louder the faster I drive.

We had the differential replaced 11 thousand miles ago so I am hoping it isn't that.

Another option is the CV joint but I don't think it is this since it is not making a grinding noise.

Unfortunately we had to have her towed home from Fontana on Sunday. Doug talked them into a flatbed tow truck luckily.

Thanks,

Kathy

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Update:

We got the car fixed. It was a wheel bearing as well as a broken stub axle. We got a new wheel bearing, hub, CV joint, and axle assembly.

Thanks for your help.

Kathy

From my one experience, it was a scraping sound. CV boot itself wouldn't make the noise, but the CV joint under it might. Or something rubbing.

to check the wheel bearing you can jack up that corner of the car and lift on the bottom outside edge of the wheel by hand. If there is a lot of movement then either the bearing is bad or the axle nut is loose.

A bad bearing will make noise when it's loaded, ie. turn right and the left bearing will sound out. It can be anything from a high pitch squeal to a low grumble. When I had a bad bearing on my WRX I swore I had a flat tire. I was so sure of it I stopped twice to check my tires on the way home from the spd way.

Sounds like a wheel bearing to me.

When Steve at Suby Specialties replaced my wheel bearing, he replaced the oem grease with higher temperature racing grease.

So easy to replace Miata NB bearings oneself. The entire hub carrier gets replaced with the new bearing in place. Relatively inexpensive part through MazdaSpeed. The hardest part is getting the darn hub cap off! One has to tap a knife blade into the cap/hub joint ... for quite a while?!

John Coffey wrote:Sounds like a wheel bearing to me.

or bad wear on a tire.

Just throwing it out there if you do find that you need to replace wheel bearings.

$74.65 each for NTN replacement wheel bearings.

or bad wear on a tire.

No, that's wowowowowowowo in Internet noise diagnosis lingo.

John Coffey wrote:

or bad wear on a tire.

No, that's wowowowowowowo in Internet noise diagnosis lingo.

bad wheel bearings sound like kumho XS with about 8 months of auto-x on them. yes, the kumhos are THAT loud now!

John Coffey wrote:

or bad wear on a tire.

No, that's wowowowowowowo in Internet noise diagnosis lingo.

well from what i've seen (admittedly not much) is by the time a bearing is sloppy enough to make noise you can feel the slop in a tech inspection type wheel shake test. Also wheel bearing noise tends be directional, ie makes noise on left turns but not on rights.

bad tires make noise all the time.

When you check a rear wheel bearing make sure the E-brake is off.

Mako Koiwai wrote:It can be anything from a high pitch squeal to a low grumble.

Marshall Grice wrote:well from what i've seen (admittedly not much) is by the time a bearing is sloppy enough to make noise you can feel the slop in a tech inspection type wheel shake test. Also wheel bearing noise tends be directional, ie makes noise on left turns but not on rights.
bad tires make noise all the time.

When one of the front wheel bearings went on my WRX, it made the WAWAWAWAWA noise and was directional. However, it wasn't detectable by the wheel shake test. It was wear starting on the bearing race that was causing the noise.

George Schilling wrote:

Mako Koiwai wrote:It can be anything from a high pitch squeal to a low grumble.

my wheel bearings sounded like Lady Gaga when they were going out.

RA RA RAW RAW RAW LA LA RAW RAW RAW

And this is what bad bearings look like ... out of our Miata. The grease was all sparkly with flakes of bearing material.

Jonathan Lugod wrote:

George Schilling wrote:

Mako Koiwai wrote:It can be anything from a high pitch squeal to a low grumble.

my wheel bearings sounded like Lady Gaga when they were going out.

RA RA RAW RAW RAW LA LA RAW RAW RAW

Sounds like your bearings were going through a bad romance.

raw raw raa ra ra ra, lol - now that song is in my head. THANKS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsQ5Rqk8-hM

sounds like that? the OP in that vid used a stethoscope (from reading his comment) & found it was indeed his wheel bearing going bad.

We got the car fixed. It was a wheel bearing as well as a broken stub axle. We got a new wheel bearing, hub, CV joint, and axle assembly.

Thanks for your help.