Wheel bearing sense check

[Triumph Man]

For some reason I can never get this the right way round in my head - if my car makes a roaring/droning/howling noise when I’m gojng straight on, gets louder when turning right, and quietens down when I’m turning left, is that (likely) to be wheelbearing failure on the left hand side of the car? Similarly there is also a slight rotational clunk that can be felt when turning right. No play in either bearing when jacked up. Slight in and and out play in the right hand front driveshaft (I did wonder whether it was a driveshaft)

Car is a discovery 4, 150,000 miles so at the age that they all “seem” to have wheel bearing failure at the front!

[Smint]

You cannot rule out either side or none at all, you'd swear there was a failing bearing on my Forester the second the winter tyres go on, soon as the summer set goes back on the noise disappears till next season.

Decades ago helped a mate swap one front wheel bearing on his then Peug 305, no change, turned out to be the inner race failing on the opposite side.

[Triumph Man]

Had thought tyres (it’s on A/T) but the howl is almost defeaning now and doesn’t sound like tyre howl. I’ve got one wheel bearing sat on my desk for the front, wouldn’t hurt to buy another I suppose!

Hope it’s not one of the rears though - they are a pig…

[johnsmith222]

Put a deep socket and bar on the wheel bolt and use it to spin the wheel. Sometimes very noisy wheel bearings can have zero play but make noise when spinning.

Spinning the wheel by hand sometimes isn't fast enough

[miniman]

Have the wishbones been done?

[stogbandard]

Some cars can have tyres that suffer from “sawtoothing” often on the inner edges of the back wheels. I was told this happens because the inner sides of the tyres scrub more on turns.

They can cause a proper howl - enough for my A5 to fail its MOT for bad rear wheel bearing. It wasn’t the wheel bearings it was the tyres. With the tracking checked and new tyres - no more howl!

[Triumph Man]

miniman said:

Have the wishbones been done?

Yep I did the front lowers last year / 15000 miles ago. Tyres and alignment done at the same time

[TooLateForAName]

Generally its the side that has the weight transfer to it. So yes, if it gets worse turning right then it would be the left side.

However, its JLR, so the whole thing will be $£€*ed

[Ryan_T]

I tried to diagnose a wheel bearing this way and convinced myself it was the incorrect side. Ultimately had it jacked up idling in 6th, and by touching the wishbones one side was vibrating like mad compared with the other.

[Snow and Rocks]

Do you have a spare set of tyres to check?

My Hilux has steadily been getting louder between about 45 and 60 over the last couple of years, particularly when cornering and twice I mentioned it to the garage when dropping it off for a service and was told that it was just the tyres.

Eventually it got to the point where I didn't believe them and was actually worried that a bearing was about to collapse or something so put the original road tyres back on to confirm - amazingly, complete silence!

There's plenty of tread on the BFG ATs and they look perfectly fine but after almost 90k miles they howl along the road road like crazy for some reason. New set coming soon but in the meantime I just drive faster!

[alanshuff]

For each side jack the car up and hold the spring while rotating the wheel - you might be able to feel small vibrations through the spring on the side of the offending wheel bearing (if that's what it is).

[CLX]

Triumph Man said:

For some reason I can never get this the right way round in my head - if my car makes a roaring/droning/howling noise when I’m gojng straight on, gets louder when turning right, and quietens down when I’m turning left, is that (likely) to be wheelbearing failure on the left hand side of the car? Similarly there is also a slight rotational clunk that can be felt when turning right. No play in either bearing when jacked up. Slight in and and out play in the right hand front driveshaft (I did wonder whether it was a driveshaft)

Car is a discovery 4, 150,000 miles so at the age that they all “seem” to have wheel bearing failure at the front!

I had exactly the same scenario and theory as you, but it turned out to be the opposite bearing which needed replacing.

[Baldchap]

Possible to get it down your local MOT centre/friendly mechanic and on their brake tester? You'll be able to spin them up and see where it's coming from.

[Triumph Man]

Confirmed as Nearside rear wheel bearing. Which is a shame, because those are a pig to do! Fronts are the cassette type and are easy peasy. Rears take a lot more work...

[Krikkit]

The reason it's hard to diagnose is a lot of wheel bearings are double-race - so on weight transfer either the inner or outer bearing on each side gets slightly more weight.

e.g. Turning left increases the noise, you're transferring the weight off 2 races and onto 2 races.

[blauvel]

Based on the symptoms you're describing on your Discovery 4—the roaring/droning/howling noise that gets louder when turning right, quiets when turning left, and the slight rotational clunk felt when turning right—it's highly likely that the left wheel bearing is the culprit, even though there isn’t any noticeable play when jacked up.

Edited by blauvel on Thursday 27th February 08:14

[Shelsleyf2]

An infra red temperature gun can sometimes help as the failing bearing will probably be running hotter. Go for a drive try not to use the brakes to much and after stopping check temps across axles and compare. I had an x trail had howl noise, drove me mad. I changed front and rear bearings......disconnected and removed rear prop...turned out 4 new tyres cured it.

[donkmeister]

blauvel said:

Based on the symptoms you're describing on your Discovery 4—the roaring/droning/howling noise that gets louder when turning right, quiets when turning left, and the slight rotational clunk felt when turning right—it's highly likely that the left wheel bearing is the culprit, even though there isn’t any noticeable play when jacked up.

Just to add I replaced a wheel bearing (integrated into hub rather than a replaceable adjustable bearing) recently, where the noise was incredibly loud but there wasn't much discernible play with the wheel. I wasn't convinced I wasn't just seeing the play I expected I should be seeing. I didn't bother getting the dial indicator on it as I was replacing it but I wouldn't be surprised if it was still in spec.

[E-bmw]

donkmeister said:

blauvel said:

Based on the symptoms you're describing on your Discovery 4—the roaring/droning/howling noise that gets louder when turning right, quiets when turning left, and the slight rotational clunk felt when turning right—it's highly likely that the left wheel bearing is the culprit, even though there isn’t any noticeable play when jacked up.

Just to add I replaced a wheel bearing (integrated into hub rather than a replaceable adjustable bearing) recently, where the noise was incredibly loud but there wasn't much discernible play with the wheel. I wasn't convinced I wasn't just seeing the play I expected I should be seeing. I didn't bother getting the dial indicator on it as I was replacing it but I wouldn't be surprised if it was still in spec.

Very frequently, there is still zero play when the bearing is noisy.

[5s Alive]

E-bmw said:

donkmeister said:

blauvel said:

Based on the symptoms you're describing on your Discovery 4—the roaring/droning/howling noise that gets louder when turning right, quiets when turning left, and the slight rotational clunk felt when turning right—it's highly likely that the left wheel bearing is the culprit, even though there isn’t any noticeable play when jacked up.

Just to add I replaced a wheel bearing (integrated into hub rather than a replaceable adjustable bearing) recently, where the noise was incredibly loud but there wasn't much discernible play with the wheel. I wasn't convinced I wasn't just seeing the play I expected I should be seeing. I didn't bother getting the dial indicator on it as I was replacing it but I wouldn't be surprised if it was still in spec.

Very frequently, there is still zero play when the bearing is noisy.

I've replaced a few noisy bearings and none have had detectable play. On my 5 series the outer bearing races were completely dry and burned black. Other than the blackening the bearings and races looked fine, although it sounded like an air raid siren on he way up the M6.