Unexplained rumbling noise.....hope it's the wheel bearings.

[don-ohio]

I already replaced the passenger side front wheel bearing assembly and that wasn't where my noise was coming from,so I'm doing the driver's side today(127.99 w/3 yr. warranty from Advance Auto).
These bearings have 121K on them,so like I told my wife,they are pretty old and I don't feel bad replacing them anyway.
Any thoughts on road noise? I have lifted the wheels all around and all bearings are tight,like new. don-ohio ^)

 

[LS4me]

My rumbling/howling noise turned out to be the pinion bearing. The noise started at (IIRC) about 15mph or so and got louder with speed. I initially thought it was a wheel bearing but those have more of a grinding component to the noise.

 

[Andrizzle]

If the sound is louder turnining slightly one way more than another, it is the opposite side's hub. This will be mostly noticeable at interstate speeds.

 

[don-ohio]

Yep! That was it! The driver's side wheel bearing assembly.Running quiet now. Funny thing was,there was NO play to give it away.When I got it off the car,there was a perceptible feel of roughness,but still no play.
That's the first bad wheel bearing I've ever seen(and I've replaced a lot of them)that didn't develop play in 121K,even when bad.
I'm very curious as to what's inside that hub and if there is a self-adjusting method to take out the small amount of play?
I may cut it apart yet if I get the time. GLAD it wasn't the driveline! don-ohio

 

[LS4me]

Yep! That was it! The driver's side wheel bearing assembly.Running quiet now. Funny thing was,there was NO play to give it away.When I got it off the car,there was a perceptible feel of roughness,but still no play.
That's the first bad wheel bearing I've ever seen(and I've replaced a lot of them)that didn't develop play in 121K,even when bad.
I'm very curious as to what's inside that hub and if there is a self-adjusting method to take out the small amount of play?
I may cut it apart yet if I get the time. GLAD it wasn't the driveline! don-ohio

My front bearings were the same. The wheel had no movement but when spinning the hub you could feel the grinding inside.

 

[RigsLS]

Fn wheel bearings coming out of CHINA are pure garbage! I'm talking in general here, wifey's car has gone through a few, one was even defective directly out of the box, I think they take old ones and sand blast them new again then put it in a white box and resell the defective units, Fn white box parts! OEM all the way!

 

[don-ohio]

Well,these were MOOG,but they WERE from China.All I can do is hope that MOOG has good quality control people and practices.
I probably wouldn't have used them if Ida'known......but since I had one already on,I went ahead with the left side. don-ohio ^)

 

[1LoudLS]

it should be noted that not everything that comes out of china is garbage... there are a lot of high quality things do come out of there (somethings are very hard to get anywhere else...). there are some major problems with the the country does do some things, and they do ship out a lot of garbage , especially when there are companies are cranking out very low quality carbon copies of good parts (a lot of the time, even marked/boxed are the real part)