Road noise or wheel bearing noise?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sniwallof
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Technician reported to me that my left front bearing had either lost lubrication or had been improperly lubricated during manufacture. I suspect the latter and would propose that this may be the reason for all of the early failures. being reported.
 
We had the left front wheel bearing fail this week. About two weeks ago a heard a faint odd sound the increased its cadence with an increase in car speed. Wednesday of this week I heard it again, loud enough to pick it out from road noise. Yesterday (Thursday) it was louder, today it couldn't be ignored.

It turns out we were on our way to trade in the 2018 to buy a 2020. I told the salesman about the wheel bearing but he just shrugged it off and it didn't effect our negotiated trade-in value.
 
jdonalds said:
We had the left front wheel bearing fail this week. About two weeks ago a heard a faint odd sound the increased its cadence with an increase in car speed. Wednesday of this week I heard it again, loud enough to pick it out from road noise. Yesterday (Thursday) it was louder, today it couldn't be ignored.

It turns out we were on our way to trade in the 2018 to buy a 2020. I told the salesman about the wheel bearing but he just shrugged it off and it didn't effect our negotiated trade-in value.
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Car had 53K miles on the odometer.
 
jdonalds said:
It turns out we were on our way to trade in the 2018 to buy a 2020
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Make sure you obtain the starting battery capacity when accepting the new one, and please report back as to how your EV range looks after you get a little driving experience under your belt.
 
Hi folks,
We have a new noise that occurred suddenly today. Sounds like grating vs like a wind noise, and it correlates with the wheel turning. No difference if braking. The noise begins soon as wheel turns, you don't have to get to any speed. Began about 2 miles from home at about 30mph. No chance to go faster than that in the 2 miles. One of us got out of the car to listen in driveway and seems to be coming from rear wheel, detectable even at 5 mph. Could this be a bearing gone bad suddenly (and quite loudly)? Other guesses? Also wondering if driving 20 miles to dealer with that noise (50 mph roads) would not be a good idea.
We don't have jacks or stands to test for bad bearings like the video posted earlier in this thread. But we do have an orthoscope from the mouse debacle (btw, keeping the vents on recirculate while parked seems to have kept mice from the filter area or cabin areas). Anything we'd be able to see if we can get the scope behind the wheel?
Thanks for suggestions.
 
This could be a bearing, but more typically a bearing would not fail suddenly. Bearings often sound more like a rumble and it would progressively get worse rather than all of a sudden. Your description of "suddenly (and quite loudly)" doesn't seem quite appropriate for this.

I wonder if a stone kicked up and got lodged where it is rubbing on the brake disk... I would suggest removing the affected wheel to explore this area. Rotating the wheel while jacked up could help you to localize the sound. I realize you stated that you don't have this capability.

How about this... You could go to your nearest independent repair shop or tire store. Tell them you are hearing this noise and pay them a little to render an opinion. It could be something trivial (like the stone), but if not, they could advise you whether it would be safe to drive it to the dealer or if it would be best to arrange to have it towed.
 
My Clarity is starting to make a 'wheel-bearing noise'. I have 116,000 miles on the car. Any chance the electric powertrain warrantee will cover this?
 
ClarityBill said:
My Clarity is starting to make a 'wheel-bearing noise'. I have 116,000 miles on the car. Any chance the electric powertrain warrantee will cover this?
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A dealer will need to determine the source of the noise. Then, they’ll need to determine if that/those component(s) are covered under the warranty.
 
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