Bearing noise?

[Walsted]

My car has recently started making a noise at highway speeds similar to the sound of the not-quite muddin' tires on jacked-up trucks at highway speeds. (True muddin' tires have a lower frequency on the highway than the on/off road tires.) I have BFG G-force Super-Sports, which aren't really off-road tires, and they didn't make that noise previously. I'm thinking it is one of the front hubs gone bad, but can't figure out which one. Top down, sounds like it is coming from the passenger side, top up, sounds like it is coming from the driver side.

No play when stationary, no noise at all until 30mph, and then it is just barely noticeable until I'm at 60mph. It isn't engine RPM related, but is speed related; if I am doing 4500rpms in 5th and hit the clutch (on an otherwise empty road) while the engine goes to idle, the pitch of the noise slowly decreases with speed, not RPM.

I have about 10K on ebay (supposedly Timken) hubs. Stock hubs were replaced as a precaution for other reasons, and I still have those, but they look real short of grease.

Thanks in advance for any help

[Keifersmith]

So at speed when it's making the noise, does the noise change if you slowly weave from left to right? All hubs that I've ever had going out (at least on OTM) the noise will continue when stressing the bad hub but get quiet(er) when reducing the stress on the bad hub. i.e. if it was a right hub then when turning slightly to the right (more stess on left hub, less on right), the noise will get quieter or even go away. when turning to the the left, the noise either stayed the same or got a little louder. Just a thought.

[Walsted]

I don't notice any noise level change when the stress changes from hub to hub during turning or curves in the road. I don't have many high-speed curves on my drive, though, and I always seem to end up behind some old lady on a cell phone that makes me drop below the noise level when I'm on one of those few curves trying to figure this out.

Thanks,

[Nails]

When you jack the car up to remove the load you don't feel any slop when grabbing the top and bottom of the wheel?

[Walsted]

I can't feel any slop with the weight on or off of the wheels.

[Walsted]

Solved. For future reference, I jacked up the front of the car, and tried to find play or unusual noise on both sides. There was none, but the driver side wheel had more resistance to being turned. I removed the wheel and tried to turn the hub, and it felt notchy. Bingo, that was the problem.