Needle Bearing or Wheel Bearing?

Have 2007 Tacoma 4x4 Base without lift. Have growling noise noticeable at higher speeds 40-65+. It goes away when turning left. Replaced the driver side wheel bearing and the driver side axle (boots were cracked). Noise is still there. Putting it in 4 wheel drive has no affect on the noise.

Do I have an issue with needle bearing or should I look at replacing the right side wheel bearing?

 

I'll go for a quick spin and get back to ya on acceleration vs coasting in neutral.....

Last time I checked it was the same 2wd and 4wd. I'll reconfirm that shortly.

 

Just back - growling noise had no change in neutral vs under acceleration. Same in 2wd and 4wd.

 

Most likely it’s your front passenger side wheel bearing gone bad.

 

Should have done both bearing at the same time, it's the passenger side.

 

Lift your truck off the ground with 4 jack stands and have someone listen for a growling or groaning noise to your front passenger side wheels while you lightly depressing the gas pedal just enough for the wheels to spin. Have to this to my wife AWD Highlander to diagnose a bad rear wheel bearing because there’s was no play on the rear wheel bearing.

 

This works.. you can spin it faster/easier if you leave the wheel on too.

 

Having the same issue on my truck at 50mph its the loudest. Like a whine sound the gets louder with acceleration and the quieter when slowing down. Noticed it at 90k and I'm now at 125k. Hopefully not the needle bearing.
Got 2 new wheel bearing assembly's otw though jic.

 

I've had both, and believe I'm in for a new wheel bearing again after 40k miles on the one I replaced.

The needle bearing is a very distinct rumble/vibe that seems to occur only between 30-45 mph. It started the same day I put a small lift on the truck.

The wheel bearing sound WILL go away when turning certain directions, so my guess is that's your problem. My driver's side went bad, and the sound went away when I turned right.

I'm replacing all those components next weekend, so fingers crossed that it chases off the vibes for a while!

 

Wheel bearing fixed it.