I have an 04' Acura TSX, and it's been making this low humming noise (I posted a vid so you can get a better idea of how it sounds). Anyways, after doing some research, I came to the conclusion that it's probably the wheel bearing that needs replacing. However, when I jacked up the car to do the "wobbly wheel test" to determine which wheel needed the bearings replaced, all the wheels were perfectly stiff. Is it possible that my bearings still need to be replaced, and it's just not completely worn yet? If not, any other suggestion as to where the noise might be coming from? Any help would be great. Thanks=D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ojS20boqCU

 

cant really hear but your bearing could be bad and the wheel is still stiff. is that 100k miles i see?

you can also try jacking up the car and giving the wheel a good spin. sometimes you can hear the wheel bearing hum. this usually works when the bearing is pretty bad.

tires can cause hum also.

 

a bad wheel baring when your driving normaly makes more of a howl sound and like k7g said just cause it doesnt wobel doesnt meen its still bad, it could also be a sticky break if your car is pulling to one side a bit

 

Cool! Ty for the responses! On the video, it kinda sounds like my car has an exhaust, but that's actually the noise it's making. And, yep, it's a little over 100k miles. I'm probably gonna replace both front bearings, and all four tires, and hopefully the sound goes away. I was thinking about doing the job myself. From what I've read, the job seems fairly simple, other than pressing the old bearing out of the assembly, which hopefully i can pay a repair shop to do that part.

 

Slolam the car from left to right while driving around 30-40mph and notice if the noise increases in one direction, and goes away or fades in the other, that is the true marker of a noisy wheel bearing.


Replace the tires first, most noises are caused by rough/old tires.

 

Thanks....I replaced all 4 tires, and it's still making the noise. I tried shifting from left to right while driving , and the noise increases when i turn left. Does this mean that the problem is coming from drivers side, or the right side when looking at the car from the front?

 

By rule of thumb, the drivers side front wheel bearing would be to blame as long as the sound appears to eminate from the front of the vehicle. It may be very difficult to determine which side on the front because they tend to be very obnoxious, so the slolam method is used.

Steering left will remove the load from the left tires, increasing the slack in that bearings, and producing more noise, steering right will place more load on the bearings on the left, reducing the noise.

Inspect and/or Replace the Drivers Front wheel bearing.