I have a 98 CRV AWD 5 spd manual. The car has a fairly loud humming noise coming from the front end when travelling above about 30mph. Sounds like a tire noise or a bad bearing. It gets louder as I turn left and disappears when I turn right. I've rotated the tires and replaced the right front wheel bearing but the noise remains.
Everything I've read seems to point to the wheel bearing but obviously thats not the issue. Any other ideas?

 

If you replaced the right front wheel bearing I assume you at least checked the left? Seems like it's either the other wheel bearing or the transmission

 

Well the noise doesn't seem to come from the left. It wouldn't make sense that when I turn left (loading the right wheel) that the noise gets louder if it was the left wheel bearing.

 

Not so much with sealed wheel bearings. Try running it on a lift to see where the noise is coming from

 

I believe I have the same problem but on the drivers side, although my noise doesn't seem to get worse when I make turns, and I have an automatic trans. I replaced the wheel bearing but it didn't fix the problem. Switched tires, no help. I put the car up on jack stands and ran it, but there was no noise, course with the all wheel drive system, it's hard to get the front wheels to spin at 20-30mph, but no matter what speed I could get there was no noise. It appears to be only present with the weight of the car on the wheels. The CRV is a 1998, and has 130k miles on it and Honda replaced the automatic trans at around 70K miles. I'm wide open for suggestions.

 

Is it possible that you are mistaking a front noise for a rear noise and actually have a bad REAR right wheel bearing?

 

Sorry it's the drivers side on my car but I don't think that would make a difference.
I swear I can almost feel the noise in the steering wheel and being so close to the left front wheel I would be surprised if I were mistaking it for the rear, but hey I've been wrong before, and I'll look anywhere to find the noise. The rear would be rather easy to check also. Is the rear bearing pressed In?

 

Maybe its the axles...

 

When I had the spindle off to replace the bearing I checked the cv joints as well as I could without taking the axle off, and they seemed OK.

 

It can be difficult to check cv joints by hand. If they are completely shot you may feel some play in them. I have replaced many that were noisy but had no detectable amount of play in them.

 

Well I guess I'll replace the driver side axle and see what happens.

Thanks, and I'll let you know what happens.

 

The best way for me to diagnose front wheel bearing noise is definitely on the hoist. Whatever works for you, a hoist or four jackstands. I usually start the car and let the wheels spin free and then slow one of the wheels down with the back of my prybar, in other words, smooth curved side. After slowing it down, I have someone hold the tire while I listen or feel for the bad bearing. I'll use my screwdriver usually, but be careful, make sure it's really long one. If not, just feel with your hands, again be careful. I usually put my hand next to the axle on the caliper mounting bracket. I can usually feel the excessive noise/vibration there. If you I need to load the bearing, I again use the back side of my prybar and slow it down a little to help apply some sort of load.

Good luck and be careful, I'm not responsible for your injury. If you're not comfortable, bring it to the pros at your local Honda dealer.

 

I tried to check it with the car on four stands but I couldn't get the wheels to turn a a a speed equal to around 30 mph which is the speed I the noise is most noticable. The AWD seems to make this almost impossible. Since the noise sounded just like a wheel bearing and I couldn't check it with a load, I went ahead and replaced the wheel bearing. Now the only ting I know is that it isn't that wheel bearing. I think maybe I should look at the axle. Possibly the noise is coming from there.