Wheel Bearing Noise?

A few months ago my truck started making a noise that’s hard to describe. In the cab it sounds like “road” noise or like the sound that some all terrain tires make especially the more aggressive ones. Although I’m sure it’s not the tires. The tires I have are the same as I had before I replaced them with a new set and they were pretty quiet tires. Makes the sound especially between 40 and 55 mph. Don’t hardly hear it below 40 mph. No other symptoms, no vibrations, nothing.
I had a rear bearing go bad in a Ford F-150 but it made a high pitched howling sound.
Any ideas? I don’t know if it’s serious or if I should just keep driving it and see what happens.

 

Is there more noise when you turn left or right ?
This places more load on the wheel bearing

 

swerve left and right, people might think your drunk but its a sure fire way to pin point a bad bearing.

 

I have not noticed an increase in noise when turning but haven’t really paid attention. I’ll take it out later today and do some serious swerving and see what happens.

 

I have the same issue and just pinpointed it as a wheel bearing. 89,000 miles. Now...to figure out which one....

 

If you plan to keep the truck for any length of time , purchase 2 .
Then you can do some diagnostics to figure out which one is making the noise and have another 1 for a spare . Most dont last 150k

 

Can you check all 4 wheel bearings with the truck on a lift and wiggling the wheel?

 

Sometimes you get lucky on a hoist and feel some play with the bad bearing , however , because there is no load on the bearings when on a hoist , its going to be difficult to hear the bearing . A stethescope would help in this situation .

 

I had the same issue as OP, new tires, no change. There was zero wiggle when jacked up. I would have bet money it was my passenger wheel bearing. I replaced it, no change. Replaced the drivers side, noise gone. It was on the top side.

My advice, replace both sides so you know they're good to go.

 

Also don't rule out a rear wheel bearing. I had the same issue with my truck a year ago. Started off as what sounded like tire noise around 35mph and went away around 45mph. It eventually got worse and did it at almost all speeds. Turning left or right made no difference in the sound either. First clue was when I swapped wheels and noticed the drivers side rear had a leaking axle seal. Turns out the vent plugged up and the excess pressure pushed out that seal taking the bearing with it. Replaced the bearing and relocated the rear vent to the tail light and all is good. Rear wheel bearings are not very DIY friendly unless you have a press. Even so the shop that did mine broke a 20 ton press getting it out...

 

Had to replace the passenger rear on mine @ about 142K. The noise was as you describe, and it made no difference when turning - I could only tell it was coming from the rear. There was no wiggle when lifted off the ground or spinning by hand.

I have a Chassis Ear, but decided to just get both rears off the ground (with appropriate precautions) and put it in drive (it's an automatic). At idle, there was a "loose bearing noise" in the passenger side, but only very slightly, almost imperceptible.

Took a chance on it being the right side (no pun intended) . As soon as I pulled the axle, I could tell it was the correct side to replace by looking at the rear of the bearing.

Note of caution from when I did mine. The serrated bolts were so rusted to the bearing assembly, I could not hammer them out, punch them out with a 9x rivet gun, or press them out with a 20 ton press. I had to use a cutting wheel on a grinder and cut through the hub assembly and bolts low enough horizontally to get past most of the rust, then use an air hammer to push the remainder of the serrated bolts out. Luckily I ordered a set of new bolts/nuts ahead of time because I was planning to replace them anyway, since the serration on these types of bolts tend to get crushed a little once used.

 

When mine went out, it didn't seem to be sensitive to swerving. However, jacking up the front end and simply spinning each front wheel, I was able to notice a tad more rotating "whir" one on side than the other. Changed it out, noise gone. 15K miles later, the other side shit the bed. Another vote to just change them both. They seem to be good for about 100K +/- 50K

 

I experienced the same "road noise" at hwy speeds with no vibes along with passing the manual push/pull test. Bought the whole WB assemblies from an ex-TW member here and replaced both front WBs. Fixed the noise. Always replaced both because when one fails, the other one is not too far behind. It's much less hassle when you already have the proper tools out to just replace both at once. Highly recommend the whole assembly and the ones sold on TW. Go with cheap ones like the ones at local auto parts store will result in you repeating the install in the future.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ce-4x4-prerunner.537080/page-52#post-22749256

 

My front bearing made kind of a grinding noise when they failed. And it was more noticable when making turns. Both of mine failed at different time, between 115K and 125K miles. Like others have recommended, do both wheels and save yourself the inconvenience of doing them one at a time. The other one is going to fail, it's just a matter of when.

 

my front ones are likely going out on the driver's side. My noise happens when hard-right getting on the freeway, then goes away. I started to get some more vibes as well. At first I thought it was running he KM3's then the noises started. good times. You can hit up @05Taco4x4 for a set of hubs. If he has them in stock they ship quick. Good deal on a pair. I only need one but like some noted I likely will repair both and keep the used passenger side as a spare since its still good but has almost 70k on them. Due to my offset and the weight of my truck 7k lbs I am not shocked at them going out.

 

Took my truck out and did swerves and turns. Noise didn’t get louder , if anything it was less noise. I’m sure it’s not the tires but I’m going to bring it in to the place I got the tires from and have them rotate and balance the tires. They do it for free as part of their tire purchase package. Just to see if there is any change at all in the noise. They also do auto repair and maintenance and I know the mechanic there is very good. Think I’ll have them check it out and get an opinion. (My tires are Hercules Terra Trac II AT’s. Last set they performed well and were not noisy. ) I’ll do it next week and let you all know what I find out. Thank you for all your responses.

 

My experience having owned several 2nd gen trucks. Drove one past 194k miles no bearing problems ever. Drove another past 145k again no problems. But on third truck driver side bearing went south at 135k. We replaced that bearing but in consultation with my mechanic it was decided not to replace the other side. Bearings are not like brakes or shocks. They don’t get replaced in pairs because they either work or they don’t so why replace serviceable parts that have not failed? I know the consensus here is if one has failed the other will fail soon after. I’ll let you know how this pans out

 

Lift the front of the truck and spin each wheel by hand while grabbing the knuckle. If the bearing is bad it will feel rough through your hand. Compare side to side

Try it, it works

 

Need help diagnosing a whirring noise…. I want to say it’s the wheel bearing, but I honestly don’t know. I’ve done the left to right and up to down play test with the truck on a jack stand and there was no play vertical. Left to right was very little, if any and no clicking/knocking when doing so.
I’ve rotated tires, and purchased a different offset of wheels but the noise is worse with a smaller offset, (went from -38 to -10).
Notes: it feels like the noise begins after a long drive and can especially be heard after a lot of stop go driving in traffic.
The noise is also intermittent and unpredictable: meaning that I’ve attempted to recreate the conditions via long drives or stop and go driving by trying to ride the brakes, but it’s just comes and goes on its own.
Im ready to take it to a mechanic if that’s what it takes, but I’m hesitant if it’s something very easily done in the driveway. thanks in advance.
https://youtube.com/shorts/trrIyIOanRk?feature=shared

 

Difficult to tell from the audio, but it sounds like more of a high-pitched whining noise to me. Failing wheel bearings tend to produce lower-frequency growling noises, like rumblestrip pavement, cupped tires, or when I eat too much ice cream.

This actually sounds like a dust shield rubbing against the rotor to me. Or a rock trapped between them. But when either of these situations happened to me, the noise was more prominent and constant.

I'm not especially optimistic that this will help, but if you haven't yet tried: jack up the front so you can spin the wheels freely. See if you can get any noise by applying slight pressure to the dust shield behind the rotor as you rotate the wheel. Perhaps it's just barely clearing the rotor normally, but sometimes rubs slightly, such as when the rotor is especially hot or when Mercury is in retrograde?

That could help confirm the suspicion, but either way, I'd recommend removing the wheel, dismounting the caliper and hanging it aside, and removing the rotor. Now you can see the dust shield... what a flimsy piece of shit, right? Does it have any shiny spots or edges, indicating occasional contact with the rotor? Who cares at this point. Let it know who's in charge -- give it a good shove around its perimeter, towards the spindle, deforming it a bit further from the rotor at all potential points of contact. Tell it to stop fucking with your rotor. It owes you money. Threaten to murder its entire family.

Do this right and it'll stop whining for good. Let it know you still love it. Just gotta keep it in line.