ok... bear with me here this is kinda hard to describe... first off, the noise only happens when the cars in motion, and im pretty sure its something to do with the wheels spinning... its kinda hard to tell where its coming from, but sounds like the front drivers side wheel... when im going slow you can hear it but its kinda faint, and when you get up to like 40 its loud, and at 80 its real loud... you can tell its something rotating, cuz it gets slower and faster with acceleration/deacceleration... it sounds like when your driving down the highway, and you hit that groved pavement on the side of the road... kinda like that when your going real fast.... but anway the weird part about it is, the noise stops if i make a left hand turn... like if i switch lanes, or take a corner, the noise goes away... straighten the weel out, and its back....

any ideas? explaining things as simple as possible would be best, i still dont know too many things about cars >> but any help would be greatly appreciated, im waaaay too poor to bring it to a mechanic....

This post has been edited by celicarocker: Feb 10, 2005 - 1:36 AM

Kinda sounds like wheel bearings to me.

any way to go about checking those?

yep is a wheel bearing. pop the car up with a jack and wiggle the car back n forth if it wiggles it's either your ball joint or your bearing. but if the noise is consistent with the speed than it's your bearing. the bearing should wiggle back n forth a lil bit if it's bad. it could also be your tread on your tire too. is it seperating at all? or maybe have a rock in it. check inbetween your brake pad and your rotor. my ex gf's civic had a rock stuck between the rotor and the pad it sounded like a wheel bearing so i got out looked at it and turned the wheel and there was a rock chillin there. it happened to her twice in like a month... what is the luck of that it's like a one in a million chance.

This post has been edited by rjbibeau: Feb 10, 2005 - 2:25 PM

i had a nail with a large head stuck in the wheel and it was making that noise.

-rjbibeau+Feb 10, 2005 - 2:23 PM

what do you mean by that? i posted a little while ago about how my tires wore down unevenly.... i havent had the tires for more than 6k miles, and the insides of them is bald already...

Bad Ball joints wont make noise like that. They will only make the car wander alittle and feel kinda clunky when going over bumps and such. If its not your brakes making the noise then it is most likely the wheel bearings. Jack the car up and turn the wheel and see if anything seems like is binding or making noise...otherwise just replace your wheel bearings.

im going to buy a floor jack today... how much do wheel bearings cost?

ok my cars pretty much undriveable right now... im buying new wheel bearings this afternoon, but wont be able to put them in till monday... ive never done this before (how hard can it be? >> ) so if anybody has and has any tips it'd be great....

i cant tell u how hard it is buit i just got mine back from my dads shop for the same problem but it was the right frotn and rear for me...i think it was the rear or something to do with the rear

I can assure you it won't be easy to take the wheel bearings out yourself. You need a wheel bearing press and experience. I just saw this done on another car and it was a pain in the ass. Our wheel bearings are pressed in, that's why they don't just sell the entire hub assembly which would be easier to just bolt on/off. Seriously, if it's a wheel bearing, take it to a shop or find someone who's done that before.

--Bill

oh yeah, are you sure there's not something like a piece of fenderwell plastic touching the tires. For the balding issues, sounds like you need an alignment pretty bad.

well im attempting this in a few hours... ive talked to a bunch of people, read the repair manual, and i feel confident i can do it >>

i gave up


8am - 1pm, and nowhere near done... i suck at life

haha...the wheel bearing are pressed in. There are ways to do it but not very easy. Just let a shop doo it...cant be a insane amount of $$$