humming noise front left ?

[SethM]

Good news/bad news.....

First the good: Just returned from a 1300 mile round trip journey in my 1985 T4WD--- drove from RI to NC to visit my son (and deliver a cat...) for the holiday. Car ran wonderfully.

The bad: near the very end of the trip, I became aware of an audible humming from the front left. At least I think it is the front left (noises are notoriously hard to locate). My thought is wheel bearing (??) but I"m not that experienced with cars with CV joints. Anybody got any ideas to point me in the right direction figuring this out?

Thanks,

[SethM]

Been trying to use the search function and read up.... The noise I'm experiencing definitely isn't a "clicking" sound that I have been reading about in other bad CV/bearing threads.

[dlb]

bearings don't usually click, they make more of a grinding or growling sound. your hum could be the start of your bearing going bad.

if it ends up being the bearing, a lot of guys here have recommended removing the hub and bringing it and the new bearing in to a machine shop. tfor a smal price hey will usually press out/in the old/new bearings, which saves you a ton of work unless you have a press at home.

have you noticed any burning brake smells or heat from any of the wheels? could also be sticking brakes but you will know from the smell/heat. keep driving it to figure out exactly where the sound is coming from and hopefully make the sound a bit worse so that it will help point you in the right diagnostic direction.

[SethM]

Thanks DLB. No, haven't noticed heat or smells. Just the sound so far. I'm familiar with bearing jobs (and failures) on older rear-wheel drive cars and have punched out the inner bearing race using a brass drift BUT I have NO idea what is involved with a FWD car.... Will drive it a bit more and try to pinpoint the sound/issue. Of course, I don't really want to be driving it when/if the bearing goes completely...

[dlb]

it should be fine as long as you aren't doing any more big road trips on it. just keep driving locally and you should have lots of time for it to become more vocal before you have to worry about your wheel taking leave.

someone, sdoan maybe, did a great writeup in the guides section on how to replace a bearing. take a look at that if you feel up for doing it yourself.

[xirdneh]

if the hum is more pronounced during turns
left bearing gets louder on right turns
right gets louder on left turns
they will go a long ways as they continually get louder
so no rush to replace

I keep spare wheel hubs on hand
when i need one i order bearings and inner and outer seals from Rockauto.com (varies between 16 and 30 bucks per one wheel - depending on sales) the local machine shop charges over 60.00 per one wheel.
i dissasemble the wheel hub myself to save a few dollars (local machine shop charges by the hour)
i take the hubs and parts to the shop
they assemble for between 35 and 45 bucks per one wheel hub

[Petros]

sounds more like a CV axle to me, if you get any feedback through the steering wheel, an oscillation or vibration, it is almost certainly the CV axle joint. These wear out about 3 times more often than the wheel bearings, but it could be either.

AS Xirdneh points out, either of the CV joint or bearing has to be a lot worse before there is any risk of additional damage or failure. So I would just keep driving on it until it either gets too annoying or it become very obvious which it is. Than fix it.

[SethM]

Thanks everyone. It doesn't SEEM to vary depending on turning the steering wheel. I WAS getting some vibration through the steering wheel but I think that was also associated with touching the brakes and so I thought that vibration might have been from a rotor approaching time for turning on the lathe.

I guess I'll keep driving it for a while! Thanks!

[celtglen]

Might be worth checking your strut mounts and motor mounts...or even a tire out of round..just my 2cents worth

[Petros]

Sorry, I just had to ask....

Exactly what is it humming? Is it a tune we might recognize?