Humming Sound From Rear of the Car at Highway Speeds.

P

P Rock

Active LVC Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2004
Messages
74
Reaction score
0
Location
Cleveland Suburbs
When I'm on the freeway at higher speeds, there is a hum coming from the trunk area. The faster I go, the louder it is. Under normal city driving (lower speeds) I don't hear anything and all seems to be normal.

Through search, I've come across two possible suspects....wheel bearings or tires. Others' description of wheels bearings was more of a "whine" or higher pitch. This is a lower pitch hum or a drone. Could this be tires? I have brand new, all weather, Sumitomos all around. 245/40/18 mounted on Moda R6 wheels. The car is a 2000 LS V8 sport with 119k on the odo.

Thanks
 
Mine was making a similar sound. It was more of a humming or drone as you described it. I've had bad wheel bearings before and this didn't really sound like one. It was at 70 or higher and varied with the speed.....then it was 60....then 40....then all the time. It was a wheel bearing.

But, with brand new tires, I would suspect the tires. Some are just noisy. I had a set of Pirellis on my RX-7 that were great in the rain, but insanely loud all the time. The previous set of tires made no noise at all.
 
I am getting the same problem as well....I have had the tires on for a while and it now started to do it maybe in the last month or so.... I only have 45k on the ODO though. Could it still be the bearings?
 
Wheel Bearing noise and tire noise can sound identical.


The old fashioned way to tell the difference, was to get the car on a lift and spin the wheels. If it's wheel bearings, you should be able to hear them.
 
....I should have also mentioned this happened with the old tires too. They were the same brand/model though.

How much is it to replace the wheel bearing (roughly)? What have you guys paid?
 
My 2003 car had this issue, and it was definitely the wheel bearings. FYI, the wheel bearings in the LS are know to go out, and all the cars use the same bearings, regardless of year.

Mine was replaced under warranty, so I can't give an idea of cost.
 
Looks like the rear bearings are roughly $28-$38 apiece. Don't know how hard it is to replace them.... I have a 100k mile extended warranty, but if I dont use it, I get the entire premium back at the end of the loan, so I am trying to do as much of the little stuff myself.

Any Ideas?
 
It is my opinion that the best bet is to replace the entire hub assembly. This is what I did. The hub assembly was around $250 if I recall correctly.

I looked into doing just the bearing and I could find it, but it required a couple of special "Lincoln" tools to remove/reinstall the bearing from/to the hub. I opted to go for the hub assembly. It was an easy install. It was only like 6 or 7 bolts I think.
  • You will need a LARGE DEEP socket for the axle nut. I don't recall the size, but can check tonight.
  • You will also need a new axle nut as it is specially built to self destruct when you remove it so you will have to replace it.

What I did to determine which wheel bearing it was, was to get up to the speed where I could hear it and swerve medium-hard from one side to the other. As the weight loads up on one side (the outside of the turn), it unloads the other bearing and the noise should stick to one side. When my passenger side was unloaded (swerving to the right) the noise went away. Whe the passenger side had the weight on it (swerving to the left) it was loud. I replaced the right rear wheel bearing and it no longer makes any noise!

The local stealership (I don't use this term for all of them, but I will use it for Gray Daniels FLM) wanted about $700 to do this. It took me less than an hour.
 
One thing that may have contributed to it, is when I slid into a curb and cracked my wheel. Ever since then it had this noise. Dont know if it was related or not. It now has a new wheel and the alignment was fixed and it still has the noise. Could it have been linked, or just coincidence?
 
AnderbrA said:
One thing that may have contributed to it, is when I slid into a curb and cracked my wheel. Ever since then it had this noise. Dont know if it was related or not. It now has a new wheel and the alignment was fixed and it still has the noise. Could it have been linked, or just coincidence?
Click to expand...

Left out that bit of critical info, eh? Slide into curb, crack wheel, damage wheel bearing. Uhhhhh, yeah, that would definitely do it.
 
Didnt know which side it is coming from, could be either side or both. Only hit the passenger side. Cracked the lip of the wheel. It was fine for a little while after, then it started making noise, I will have to check to see which side it is first.

It gets louder when I swerve in either direction, not just one way. That will make it a bit more difficult to diagnose, but i think i will start with the one that was hit.
 
AnderbrA said:
Didnt know which side it is coming from, could be either side or both. Only hit the passenger side. Cracked the lip of the wheel. It was fine for a little while after, then it started making noise, I will have to check to see which side it is first.

It gets louder when I swerve in either direction, not just one way. That will make it a bit more difficult to diagnose, but i think i will start with the one that was hit.
Click to expand...


Am I the only one to think the swerving and curb hitting are related somehow? :eek:
 
I purchased my 2005 LS a month and a half ago (Only had 24,000 miles). When I test drove it I didnt hear anything. All seemed well. However, once I got on the highway I heard a very annoying humming coming from the rear end and I thought it was the tires, but I took it to the dealer and they replaced some parts (under warranty) in the rear end and the humming was gone. When I get home I will check the service receipt and I will post all the parts they changed.
 
In the service order it says

"Ring Gear and Pinion and Housing bearing came apart. Overhauled rear end"
 
Lincoln305 said:
In the service order it says

"Ring Gear and Pinion and Housing bearing came apart. Overhauled rear end"
Click to expand...

Some owners have had the ring gear and pinion replaced, so this is not too unusual. However, I think the cause of the noise was failure of parts inside the differential due to heavy acceleration and overstress.

Do you know how your car was treated before you got it? If you had this problem, I'll bet you'll have other issues in the near future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 111 (members: 0, guests: 111)
Back
Top