[soundu]

My 97 seems to kind of be making a droning whine in the front. seems to start about 35 MPH.
it not loud, but noticeable. Its not shaking anything that i can tell, just the noise.
car drives OK.

SO, those that have had a front wheel bearing fail, what were the symptoms and noises?
most tire issues i have had have had vibration. I suppose it cold be a half shaft thing to.

any past repair info appreciated

bob

 

[major]

Side to side weight distribution causes different pitch in noise at certain inclines in the road, but same sound. That is a wheel bearing.

 

[the_intimidator_02]

To add to the above statement, check your tires for uneven wear/scalloping. If there is that can also be a cause of noise. You can try rotating your tires and see if the noise goes away or moves. Also you can jack up the side with the suspected bad bearing and spin the wheel by hand while holding onto the coil spring. Any roughness in the bearing will be felt vibrate up through the spring.

 

[showec8]

also if you jack up the car and shake the wheel back and forth to see if there's some play in there it could be the bearing. i just had to do 2 in the past 3 months but the first one i could tell cause the rotor was rubbing into the caliper bracket and when it went the second time i know what it was cause i turned down the street and there was a load pop and a lot of grinding from the rotor and bracket again. but those two are extreme cases of bad wheel bearings. and the first one made it to 195k miles.

 

[shoz123]

When mine went it sounded like the brakes dragging but if you turned the steering wheel just a bit the sound wine away. But just jack up the car and try to wiggle the tire. Any movement is bad.

I have a set of new OEM front knuckles FS, complete with ball joint.