Strange noise

[do2mind]

Hey, everybody...

Thanks in advance for the help...

About 300 miles ago, my car started making a strange noise... the frequency is proportional to the car's speed (i.e. NOT rpm), but it sounds like engine noise (which normally WOULD be proportional to rpm).

It started out fairly quiet, and has been getting louder... right now it's about at the same level as road noise and engine noise on an average road... but not as loud as the air conditioner, or on a noisy road (concrete, etc.)

Which means it is probably somewhere between the transmission and the tires...

I don't think it's the tires, because when I go from a noisy to a smooth stretch of road (i.e. concrete to smooth pavement...) the level of road noise changes, but this noise doesn't.

Acceleration is not affected. Handling is not affected.

Car is not pulling... drives straight as an arrow when I take hand off the wheel...

Car doesn't make any chattering or noise via the CV joints / axles...

My tires are probably at a little higher than average pressure... but don't see how that would cause this if tire wear is not funky... my rear tires are getting a little bald (used to be on the front)... balder on the edges because the tires were underinflated for a while... but still tread left.

Can anybody think of more questions I could answer to diagnose it?

[visualpoet]

Sounds like a bad wheel bearing to me. Jack the car up and spin each wheel until you find the one that makes noise. It might be very difficult to tell, but you should be able to notice a difference in the feel and sound.

[whitejdmcb7]

id probably say the wheel bearings also. also check ur tranny fluid???

[0to60n2weex]

it sounds like wheel bearing....to test it...
*jack the car up so the wheel is off the ground.
*grip the left and right side of your tire and check for a wobble or any freeplay.
*now grip it from the top of the tire and the bottom of the tire and do the same thing. this will check your ball joints. if theres some free play in it, then look behind your tire and see what's moving. usually the balljoint in the upper control arm goes bad most often.


Another way to figure out which wheel bearing is bad... when driving if you make a right hand turn and the noise gets better, then its most likely your right wheel bearing. and vice versa. Because when you turn right your weight of the vehicle transfers to the left side so theres less pressure on that bearing.

[do2mind]

Thanks, guys... it was a wheel bearing... ball joint was also bad, but not what was making this noise. A little over $400.

I'll have to check my e-mail settings, because I didn't get notification that there were answers.