Is it a bad wheel bearing or the tire?

[xBa380]

A few weeks ago I rotated my tires and right after I start noticing abnormally high road noise at 50mph and above. Almost like a droning noise on the freeway. It is really annoying to say the least.

I did some research and its either the tire itself of a wheel bearing. So I looked up some symptoms of wheel bearings going bad and did some self diagnostic...

1.) With the car in the air, I get *no* play if I hold at 12 and 6 on the tire and try to wiggle it back the forth. Solid as can be that I can tell.

2.) Taking turns at higher speeds to put weight on one side or the other side of the car does little to nothing for the noise. The passenger front is making the noise from what I can tell, and when corning left or right heavily the noise is consistent.

3.) I just demounted the tire today and checked the tread... An even 6/32 across the tire. Nothing abnormal. Air pressure is the same in all tires I have been using for years.


So I am guessing maybe this is just a noisy tire? They are General Altimax HP's and have been quite quiet up until I rotated them. If still noise after my remount I may put that tire back where it was and see if the noise goes away.


Does this sound like it may be a wheel bearing or just a noisy tire? My last tires (Falken 912's) got loud at the end of their life and I ended up replacing them at around 4/32... But it was weird just how suddenly my General's got so loud. They have been fairly quiet up until now.

Thanks!

 

[OtisBlkR1]

Originally Posted By: xBa380
A few weeks ago I rotated my tires and right after I start noticing abnormally high road noise at 50mph and above. Almost like a droning noise on the freeway. It is really annoying to say the least.

I did some research and its either the tire itself of a wheel bearing. So I looked up some symptoms of wheel bearings going bad and did some self diagnostic...

1.) With the car in the air, I get *no* play if I hold at 12 and 6 on the tire and try to wiggle it back the forth. Solid as can be that I can tell.

2.) Taking turns at higher speeds to put weight on one side or the other side of the car does little to nothing for the noise. The passenger front is making the noise from what I can tell, and when corning left or right heavily the noise is consistent.

3.) I just demounted the tire today and checked the tread... An even 6/32 across the tire. Nothing abnormal. Air pressure is the same in all tires I have been using for years.


So I am guessing maybe this is just a noisy tire? They are General Altimax HP's and have been quite quiet up until I rotated them. If still noise after my remount I may put that tire back where it was and see if the noise goes away.


Does this sound like it may be a wheel bearing or just a noisy tire? My last tires (Falken 912's) got loud at the end of their life and I ended up replacing them at around 4/32... But it was weird just how suddenly my General's got so loud. They have been fairly quiet up until now.

Thanks!


I have these on my 07 ACCORD and they are loud.. after say 10-15,000 miles is when i noticed they were most deffinately increasing in volume. Im not saying that this is your mystery noise, what i am saying is these are noisy tires.

 

[yonyon]

If you were to undo the tire rotation and the noise were to go back where it came from that would tell you something. If the noise stays the same, that tells you something else.

 

[xBa380]

Yeah, I figured as much... But if I do that and the noise is just as loud, what other checks can I do to eliminate or confirm a wheel bearing?

I have 82,000 miles currently on it. 2008 xB.

Car drives perfectly straight, no weird vibrations under braking nor any pulling.

 

[yonyon]

Well, if it's a wheel bearing, you can usually feel a rumble just turning it by hand. Press inward on the hub and give it a spin back and forth. Unfortunately, brakes can be enough to dampen the vibration and so can drive axles so you'd pretty much have to get those out of the way. Start with the non-drive wheels first as there's one less thing to get out of the way.

There are other things to look for, but this is a safe (no driving the car with the wheels off the ground) way to find a noisy bearing. Also, once you find a rumbly bearing you don't just know if it's a bearing, you also know which one.

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: xBa380
Yeah, I figured as much... But if I do that and the noise is just as loud, what other checks can I do to eliminate or confirm a wheel bearing?

I have 82,000 miles currently on it. 2008 xB.

Car drives perfectly straight, no weird vibrations under braking nor any pulling.


Swap the tires back and see what happens.
A car can drive perfectly fine on a bad wheel bearing until it doesn't, though.
A bad wheel bearing makes a distinctive runble and will eventually show an unmistakeable wobble.
I doubt that a car the age of your's with only 82K has a bad wheel bearing.

 

[barlowc]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
I doubt that a car the age of your's with only 82K has a bad wheel bearing.

Our Saturn had a wheel bearing go after just 15 months and 10K miles. It happens.

 

[xBa380]

I don't notice any rumble, vibration or anything else abnormal in normal operation even at speeds 70+mph. Everything feels 100% IMO with nothing abnormal other than the tire drone at high speeds.

I will switch the tires back next week and see if any difference. I just thought I would get some insight on how to check for bearings other than what I have already done.

 

[oily boyd]

Jack up the car and feel the entire wheel tread as it's spinning. You will detect any cupping or uneven wear. You might even feel it while wheel is stationary.

If that is good, remove wheel and listen to bearing with a stethoscope as it's spinning.

Hope this helps.

 

[default]

Could be you went too long between rotations, or have some alignment issue wearing the tire funny, making it load in other positions.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: oily boyd
Jack up the car and feel the entire wheel tread as it's spinning. You will detect any cupping or uneven wear. You might even feel it while wheel is stationary.

If that is good, remove wheel and listen to bearing with a stethoscope as it's spinning.

Hope this helps.


The stethoscope isn't a guarantee either. I've have bad wheel bearings come to me and when I jacked the front up (car in gear, safely supported and using a mechanics stethoscope) to verify my initial thoughts of which side it was, the bad bearing was indiscernible from the "good" side. I've also had bearings that would make all kinds of noise going down the road, but not always be "gritty" once removed. They're a fickle beast.

 

[Anikiri]

I have the same problem. The tires are noisy but gets real noisy around 115km/hour. I have Continental DWS.

It was the tires. I even bought the wheel bearing to swap in until my mechanic told me its the tires. Last I checked, General is owned by Continental.

This is most likely caused by bad quality tires + improper rotation.

Don't worry, if it's the bearing you'll start hearing it more and more... and more...

 

[xBa380]

Anikiri,

That exactly what I suspected... I figured it would just MUCH worse if it was the bearing in a short period of time... So I will see.

The tires have been quiet and perfectly fine for me up until just now. If the noise gets bad by the end of summer I may just have to replace them early at 4/32 or 5/32 and get some better tires... They are my summer only tires, so winter is covered with snows. My previous Falken 912's did the same noise wise, but just not as immediate. Road noise got very bad and I replaced them at around 4/32 as well. A little early, but new tires are always nice. I will just plan on new ones for next summer if it is just tire noise when I put my snows on which are super quiet.

 

[partspro]

I agree with The_Eric regarding hub bearings, so many have zero play but they make a wicked noise. If your problem is the bearing, make sure you torque the axle nut to the correct spec. These bearings MUST be torqued correctly.

 

[xBa380]

Update:

Rotated the tires back on that side of the car and the noise has gone away. So it is something with the tire itself... Maybe some type of abnormal wear I am unable to visually see, or something else. May require rebalancing?